(A/N : Shoutout to @blaxkill3 for sharing my fanfic. Thanks, really appreciate it)
([Redacted]'s Perspective)
The end
A mysterious and incomprehensible existence
No rules bind it, no logic hinders it, and no laws can stop it
It is absolute, and always there
It exists in the past, in the present, in the future
It is no concept, but it is represented as one
Then, what is the End?
It is something that can not be described using concepts
Something that exists outside of the boundary that are concepts
The End came first, then everything else
The End is the proof of existence, and yet it is not
The End is time, yet it is not
The End is space, yet it is not
The End is everything, and yet it is not
It is Nothing and Everything at the same time, to a certain degree
But that isn't enough to answer the question of "What is the End?"
The only thing that can answer that question, is, the Truth
The End, is the only undeniable Truth
The End can not be denied, because it is inevitable
Even if some sentient creatures consciously deny their End, they subconsciously accept it
Even for truly immortal and invincible beings, the End is still the Truth
They might not die, but as long as they can have even the tiniest amount of fear, the End is inevitable
But, for the End, it is different
The End can not fear
Therefore, the End, can not be stopped
Because, it is the End
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(Rimuru's Perspective)
The sounds of a hammer have been resounding throughout the whole workshop
Around twelve hours had passed
Kaijin was swinging his hammer non-stop all this time
Hammering away at the magisteel cluster, until it stated to take the shape of a sword
Ciel and I patiently waited for the sword to be completed
And now, it was finally done
Kaijin stood up from the forge, walking towards us with sword in hand
"*Pant* *Pant* Here, it is done" He said as he breathed heavily
He was exhausted. Doing a physically demanding task for twelve hours straight would make any dwarf tired
After waiting for him to catch his breath a bit, I started talking
"So you have to make 20 of these in a week? Yea, that's impossible..." I say
I wait for a bit before continuing my words
"...Unless we help. Can I see that sword for a bit?"
As soon as I say that, Kaijin looks at me with surprise, before giving me the sword
"If you can help me get out of this predicament, I will be very grateful. I promise to repay you" He says
I pretend to inspect the sword in my hands, before I give it back to Kaijin
There is no need to eat the sword, since I have already eaten in once in the previous timeline
Before I created the swords, I looked at Ciel
As she picked up my gaze, she nodded
Right after that, I held out my hand, while using the former Ultimate Enchancement, now Ultimate Skill [Weapon Creation Lord "Mazpel"]
(A/N : Now hold on. Before you try to google up 'Mazpel' to see if it has a special meaning or something, let me tell you, it just popped into my head out of nowhere. I originally tried to use Greek in order for it to have some meaning, but it just ended up as 'Oplarx' or something. Didn't sound good enough for me, so I ditched it)
In front of me, 19 magisteel longswords appear
Ciel limited the output of the skill to only create special class weapons, since if we let the skill do what it wants, it could create a weapon close to the top of the Myth class
"Eh? Eh!? EH!? WHAAAAAAT!?" Kaijin screamed out
His loud scream woke up the other three dwarves that had went to sleep, who promptly walked in the room, only to start screaming as well
Garm and Dord went "WHAAAAAT!?" meanwhile Myrd was just standing there screaming inwardly
After they all calmed down, Kaijin, with the sword he made in one hand, picked up one of the swords with the other, closely inspecting both of them while muttering "These swords are just as good-no, even better than the original one..."
"So, you can finish the job now, right?" I ask
"Yes! Thank you, miss Rimuru, miss Ciel, you've been a great help!" He said enthusiastically
Oh for god's sake
I just thought about it, but I never introduced myself as a guy to them, so, they misunderstood
"You refer to me as 'miss', but, I'm a guy, you know?" I say as such in a sassy tone
"""You're a guy!?""" They shouted in unison
"Is it the time to be surprised about that? Don't you have to deliver the swords to your king?"
"Ah, right. Once again, thank you mis-Boss Rimuru, I'll be right back!" He said as he stormed out of the workshop with the 20 longswords
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.
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The sun had hidden itself far into the east for some time now
Kaijin had come back, having already given the swords to the king
"Boss Rimuru. I thank you for you help. You had wanted to request something of me, right?"
"Well, yes. We have a village deep in the Great Forest of Jura. We wanted to find some craftsmen to come and help us create proper clothing, buildings, weapons, and all sorts of other stuff"
He looked at me, blinking a couple times
"That's all you want?" He said with a puzzled look
"Yes, that's all" I reassured him
"If that's all then I would be happy to help"
After a small moment of silence, Kaijin spoke up again
"So, Boss Rimuru. This calls for a celebration. How about a party? I will pay for everything, of course"
"A party?" I ask curiously
I have an inkling as to where this is going, and Ciel isn't going to like it one bit
"Yea. There'll be lot's of elf girls there too-" Said Garm
And in an instant, I could feel Ciel getting angry
As much as I would like to go, I should dodge the bullet here
"Ah, is it a nightclub called 'Night butterflies'? If so, I'll pass. I'd prefer to spend my time with my partner" I say
At the same time, I saw Ciel's expression brighten up like a light bulb, seemingly surprised
"Ah-Yea, we kinda, no totally forgot about that. Sorry" Dord said meekly as he scratched the back of his head
"So, we will be going now" I say while walking out of the workshop, Ciel following suit saying "Excuse us"
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After walking for a bit, I look at Ciel
"So, where do you want to go?" I ask
She looked bewildered
After staying silent for some time, she started speaking
"If I'm with Rimuru-sama, anywhere is fine"
No no no, that wasn't what I was trying to get out of you
"No, Ciel, you are the one who will be making the decisions today. I won't take no for an answer, okay?" I say
"E-E-Ehm, but why do I have to decide by myself, Rimuru-sama?" She asks
Jeez, sometimes this girl asks the most bizarre of questions
"Look, Ciel. I can't be deciding everything for you. Sometimes, you will have to make your own decisions. Just take this as one of those times. So? Where will we go?"
"U-U-Umm" She stuttered as she looked around nervously, as if looking for something
"S-Shall we go there?" She said as she pointed to one of the stores, seemingly at random
And just my luck, the store she pointed at is a clothes store
Well, lets just go with the flow
"There huh? Sure" I say, as I grab her left hand with my right
Then, we slowly inch towards the store, my eyes instinctively avoiding the windows , trying not to look at the horror that is waiting for me inside
We open the entrance of the store, only to be greeted by a wide array of colors
Colors of what?
Ugh, of course it's a women's clothing store
Dresses of all kinds, from risqué to plain, in every single color of the rainbow
God damn it
Ciel looks surprised by the large variety of different clothes
She probably hadn't seen many women's garments
Well, the only reason she had seen any is because I was used as a dress up doll by those two onis
As we walked through the store, Ciel was taking glances at all of the dresses here, until she laid her eyes on one of them
After a small amount of time, she looked somewhere else as if she wasn't interested
"Ciel, if you want anything, be sure to tell me. I'll buy it for you" I say while looking at her with a bright smile
"E-Eh? I have to decide?" She said in a shy voice
"Only if you want it. I won't force you to buy something of course"
After hearing my words, she looked at the ground for some time, as if mustering up her courage, and then pointed at the dress she was looking at before
"C-C-Can we get this one?" She said, her cheeks being visibly flushed
*Whistles* Didn't think Ciel would have these kinds of tastes
The dress she is interested in is a long dress that has a sky blue color, with red roses decorating the whole thing. It had exposed shoulders and an exposed back. The bottom of the dress was very see-through as well
It was in the fine line between risqué and extravagant. Not too flashy yet not too plain. It exposed a lot, but not too much. Just enough to enhance the attractiveness of the one wearing it
(A/N : Holy shit, I just realized. I'm listening to sonic frontiers OST while describing a god damn imaginary dress. I'm just cracking up at the thought of that)
Or at least, that is as much as someone like me, with basically zero fashion sense, can deduce
I take the dress off the hanger and start walking towards the counter
"Hey, Ciel. You want to try it on first? Or should we just buy it?" I ask
"Umm...L-Lets buy it first" She says
Then, I stand right in front of the counter
"Hello. We would like to buy this dress"
"Understood. This dress costs 1 gold coin and 3 silver coins"
Oh god that's expensive
Isn't that, like 100300 yen?
Well, it doesn't really matter, since I have way too much money to spend inside of my imaginary space
I reach out to my pocket, withdrawing a gold coin and 3 silver coins from my imaginary space, putting them on the counter
After which she takes the coins while saying "Is that dress for you lady? Or for the lady next to you?"
Tsk
While irritated, I answer "It's for this girl" as I point to Ciel
"I see. It will definitely suit her" She says as she was packaging up the dress
I pick up the bag with the dress in it, and start walking towards the exit, while hearing a "Please visit us again!" behind us
Exiting the store, I look to Ciel and ask "You want to try it now? Or maybe sometime later?"
Ciel, who has been beet red all of this time, just answers with a meek "Sometime later"
"Ok. So, where do you want to go now?"
"...Shall we go to an inn?" She answers after a brief pause
"So you want to call it quits already? Well, not that I mind"
"N-No, i-it's not t-that. I-I just want a p-private place to talk with R-Rimuru-sama" She said while stuttering heavily
I haven't heard her being that nervous since when she was Raphael
If something has her hesitating this much, than it could be serious
"Ok. Lets go inside of the imaginary space" I say, as I teleport us there
In front of us, we see a white space, expanding all the way to the horizon
I snap my fingers, and a house appears in front of us
We enter, and we end up in the only room of this temporary house, which has two armchairs, a sofa, and a table
After we went inside, I looked at Ciel and said "So, what do you want to talk about?"
"W-Well, i-it's just that, Rimuru-sama, was this whole thing for me?" She asked
What?
"What do you mean, Ciel?" I ask, confused
"Rimuru-sama went out of his way to make me make decisions, and even used a fairly large sum of money for me. What I want to ask is, why would Rimuru-sama do that?" She said
"..."
Ciel...Why is she asking such things now
Even if you ask me that, isn't it because I...umm...
Actually, why do I go for such lengths for Ciel
Yes, I know, she is my partner, my other half, but is that truly the reason?
Whenever I see her smiling, being happy, enjoying herself, I feel incredibly happy
When I think of losing her, my mind goes totally blank, completely disregarding the chance of such a future occurring
No, it goes much deeper than that
When I am close to her, when I hold her hand, when I caress her head, when I embrace her, an emotion completely new to me arises
That is when the thought dawned on me
No way...Could it be...I...With this girl...
"Love?" I mutter very very silently
Realizing what I said, my face becomes as red as a tomato
I look at Ciel, who is looking at me with a surprised expression, and a moment later, she had a mild rosy color could be seen on her cheeks
"Ciel...Could it be...Did you hear what I said?" I ask
"N-No, I didn't hear anything, Rimuru-sama" She says nervously
Phew, bullet dodged
But seriously though, I never though of the possibility of this happening
I always denied it, being all like 'Why would I be in love with my own skill?', but now, I can't deny it anymore
Ah...It makes so much sense
It would seem that...I'm in love with Ciel
...
But I can't just tell her that
I'm not ready to tell her that
I turn to look at Ciel once more, and speak up again
"Ciel...I...Do all of these things for you...Because it's you" I say
"Eh?"
"I'm saying that I'm doing it only because it is you. Not for any other reason. You are my partner, my equal, the other half of my soul. I can't not do all of these things for you. It's just that, when I see that you are enjoying yourself, I feel happy. It's just that Ciel. There is no reason for me to do that. I only do it because it's you I'm doing it for"
Ciel looks at me wide eyed, mouth agape
"..."
As she stayed silent like that, I stayed silent too
We sat on the sofa next to each other, without saying anything, and just stood there, processing our feelings
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(3rd Person Perspective)
In the stellar sea of void, a voice resounded
<Notice : Rimuru Tempest's [Embryo of Nihilious Stardust]'s hatching progress : -1%>
<W̷̺̏͛h̷̜͓͕̒̆y̷͌͠?̷̾ W̷̏h̷̜͓͕̒̆y̷͌?̷̾ W̷̺̏͛h̷̒̆y̷͌̓͠?̷̾ W̷h̷̜͓̒̆y̷͌?̷̾ W̷h̷̒̆y̷͌̓͠?̷̾ W̷̺̏͛h̷̒̆y̷͌͠?̷̾>
The voice was mumbling, using the single letters from it's predetermined phrases to express it's utter confusion
Rimuru Tempest, had done the impossible
The End no longer had the effect of conclusion on him
Instead, the conclusion was being delivered by Rimuru Tempest himself
In other words, Rimuru Tempest had long exited the realm of concepts, and entered into the realm outside of them that the End inhabits
The End wasn't angry, since it couldn't feel anger
It didn't feel insulted, since it didn't have pride
It didn't fear, since the End knows no fear
But, the End was prone to submitting to powers with higher potential that itself
Rimuru Tempest hadn't noticed yet, but he was prone to notice soon
His authority over the End, had increased
Before, when he first used it, he could only control scraps and offshoots of the End
But now, he could dominate one percent of the End
That one percent would eventually increase even more
Since, the End submitted to Rimuru Tempest's power
But what did that mean?
Simple, really
Rimuru Tempest, was becoming the End
(A/N : Words : 2529)