Ch 39: The salvation of the reapers

Currently everyone was in the meeting room of the main house. Raphael's comment about his symbolic animal being a dog was totally ignored by everyone and then Sariel stood up to speak.

"Very well, the first matter to discuss is about Raphael's punishment. He stole a piece of the light of life and warned the gods about our existence. How will he be punished?"

Everyone looked at Raphael and he looked guilty. At this moment Lucifer stood up and said...

"Because of the critical time we find ourselves in, we need all the help we can get. I decree that Raphael will receive no punishment. Any objections?"

No one objected, but Sariel said...

"I have no objection, but may I know what this critical moment is?"

"Yes. This is the main reason we are here today."

"Yes?"

Sariel was confused by her words and questioned her. Lucifer waited a moment and said...

"Today we are here to talk about how to prevent the destruction of the city."

"...."

Everyone was silent. Raphael and Sariel looked confused, but Michael, Uriel, Azrael and Gabriel knew what Lucifer was talking about. Hajime and the girls didn't know what it was about either, but Rimuru had some idea.

"Luci..."

Raphael was about to call Lucifer by an affectionate nickname in front of everyone, but he got a dangerous look from her.

"Lucifer. May we know what this is about?"

He corrected himself and asked. Lucifer nodded...

"Yes. This is it."

She pointed up and everyone looked up at the ceiling, but there was nothing there. They were going to ask the meaning of her words, but

CRACK

A loud noise was heard. It sounded like the sound of something cracking coming from far away. Raphael and Sariel were startled by the noise for they understood the meaning. Raphael ran to the window and looked up at the sky.

"The barrier... is cracking..."

He spoke startled. Sariel seemed to have guessed that this was it and was wearing a stern expression. The other members of the Seven were with serious expressions.

"Yes. She cracks more and more, every day at nine in the morning."

Lucifer confirmed Raphael's words and explained.

"Just as Raphael said, taking a piece of the life light was really dangerous and could cause damage to the barrier. That's exactly what happened.    The light of life that maintains the barrier is dying after Raphael's actions and the barrier gets weaker every day.

By Metatron's calculations, the barrier will break down completely in two days. Then the gods will overpower us or we will lose control and assume monstrous forms."

"That's..."

Raphael was feeling more guilty than ever. Everyone was thinking about what to do and at that moment Rimuru stood up.

"I would like to see that light of life. If I could do that, you have a chance of getting her hired."

The Seven looked impressed and Metatron who had been quiet until now, asked....

"Can you do that?"

"I'm not sure, but I can try..."

Rimuru thought that if he was Ciel, he could do something. He just didn't say he could do something because there was a small chance that Ciel couldn't do anything.

"Okay. In the afternoon we'll take you. Until then..."

Lucifer agreed easily and got a little thoughtful. The other members of Rimuru's group seemed happy about the city's chance of survival. Lucifer then continued

"From what Michael has told me you have great power. How about fighting some of our soldiers while you wait?"

"I think that would be fine."

Rimuru agreed and Lucifer turned to Metatron.

"Metatron, stabilize the light of life as much as possible. When you're done, call me."

"Yes."

After that everyone withdrew.

●●●

Rimuru had already fought some normal soldiers and won easily. He and the group were in a training camp and while Rimuru was fighting, everyone was eating lunch.

"Uoooh, he's really strong! Raphael-kun, do you think it's okay if I fight him?"

Uriel spoke excitedly. She was the one training the soldiers and seeing someone easily finishing them off cheered her up. Other than Lucifer, all the mortals were here. Before Raphael could answer...

"Hey, hey, what are you talking about Uriel? I will definitely go against him first."

Gabriel spoke up. Gabriel was one of Raphael's best friends and was also Uriel's boyfriend. His personality was lively just like Uriel and he liked to fight.

"No, No. I'll definitely go against him!"

"I'll go first!"

"Are you sure? I can bake that cake you love so much..."

"Uriel goes first! Rimuru, Uriel wants to fight you!"

Easy as that Gabriel gave in. Incidentally Gabriel was not very good with honorifics and called Rimuru very casually. Rimuru had overheard their conversation and said

"Don't you want to come together?"

Gabriel and Uriel were surprised and Rimuru's group was looking "as expected" Uriel and Gabriel accepted the proposal and went to the battlefield.

Uriel pulled out his shield and spear and Gabriel pulled out two butterfly knives. Rimuru readied his sword....

"Now!"

Uriel spoke and the two set out to attack, but obviously Rimuru beat them.

The strengths of the reapers was precisely their high status. They were very fast and very strong and all of them could suck souls. However, few of them contained variety in skill. The reapers that Rimuru fought were on the same level as Sakura or Yue, but these two mortals were much stronger.

The Seven easily surpassed Hajime in strength and still had a few differentiators. Gabriel seemed to focus more on speed and Uriel focused on defense. In addition they both had various abilities.

"Deadly blades!"

Gabriel approached Riimuru, his butterfly knives multiplied into several and floated around him. When he spoke, the knives went towards Rimuru. Rimuru sucked them in with 'consummate' he launched an attack at Gabriel with his sword, but....

TCHIN

Uriel stood in front with his shield and defended the attack. Rimuru kicked the shield and it flew backwards.

"Ugh!?"

Gabriel took this chance and attacked at high speed. He tried to attack Rimuru's shoulder, but was met by the handle of his sword. Gabriel stepped back as he received the attack and received a punch to the stomach that launched him far away.

"Awww. That hurts!"

Everyone put away their weapons as they saw that it was Rimuru's Victory.

"Gabriel, Don't worry. I don't think we had a chance from the beginning."

Uriel spoke up and held out his hand to help him up.

"I know. I'm still going to want that cake."

He held his hand and stood up in pain. Gabriel asked Uriel to bake a cake and she replied....

"After we save the city. Then I will make the best cake in the world!"

"Okay, I'll charge you for it."

If it was yesterday, maybe Gabriel would have been disheartened to talk about the destruction of the city, but now that they had this person with monstrous power by their side Gabriel was more at ease.

Rimuru had sat down with the group for lunch and that's when Azrael called out to him

"Mister Rimuru."

"Yes... yes Azrael-san?"

Rimuru was a little startled to be called by Azrael who had an evil appearance and didn't say much. During the whole training Azrael didn't say a word. So he was a little surprised.

"Lucifer said that after the training I would take you to the light of life."

"Eh? But didn't she say they needed time to stabilize it?"

Rimuru asked confused by Azrael's words. He was training just to pass the time while he waited, but from Azrael's words there was no need to wait.

"We need no such thing. The truth was that Lucifer was testing you. She wanted to see how far the extent of your powers would go and if you had any chance of getting close to the light of life."

"What do you mean get close?"

Apparently the training was to test Rimuru. Yet Rimuru wanted to know why that was.

"The light of life emits a strong energy. Even more so now that it is unstable. Reapers have no problem, but if weak humans approach it, they can end up dying. However from what I saw in training you won't have a problem. I think it would be better for your friends to stay here."

"I see... that's fine. I'll let them know and come with you then."

Rimuru warned the others and followed Azrael. After that they went to the center of the city where it had the 'light of life'.

"Oh. You have come."

Lucifer was sitting on a bench while drinking tea. She stood up when she saw them and told them to come closer.

"May I?"

He asked if he could touch the orb of light to analyze it. The two nodded in agreement and Rimuru let Ciel do his work.

He kept his eyes closed for a while and then.

"Wow. That's bad..."

Rimuru said after Ciel analyzed it. Lucifer and Azrael stared in confusion at his words and Rimuru explained

"So the light of life is not losing its energy. It is about to explode, in two days."

"...."

The two were surprised and said nothing. Lucifer was the first to recover from the surprise and then asked

"How big is the explosion going to be?"

Lucifer seemed concerned if the explosion would destroy the human cities nearby. Rimuru then said.

"Normally with that much energy, it would blow up half the continent, but you don't have to worry about that. I have a method of nullifying the explosion completely, the problem is..."

This orb of light was so complicated and well protected that even Ciel could not control it, but Rimuru could put the light of life into its infinite space and blow it up there. Azrael and Lucifer were startled by the size of the explosion, but were reassured to know that it could be nullified. Azrael then asked...

"What's the problem?"

"It's just that... when he explodes, all his energy will explode too. You guys will probably die. His energy is very tied to you, since you have spent centuries using it."

This is also why Rimuru hasn't isolated the light of life yet. If he did, the connection would be severed and all the reapers would die. Lucifer asked.

"Hmmm. Is there anything we can do about that?"

"Let me see..."

Lucifer knew that Rimuru was powerful and wondered if he could do something. Rimuru turned on thought acceleration to talk to Ciel.

"Ciel-san, is there something we can do?"

[Yes. In their current state we can't do anything, but if they became more powerful I could disconnect the 'light of life' from their souls. If they became twice as strong not only that but they would no longer need souls to survive].

"Wow. That's very good, but how would they become twice as strong in two days?"

[I'm still calculating methods...]

"Okay."

Rimuru found it difficult to strengthen someone that much in such a short time, but he was going to trust his partner Ciel.

Rimuru turned off the thought acceleration and replied to Lucifer.

"I know a method of disconnecting you from the light of life. However I would need the reapers to become twice as strong."

Lucifer and Azrael cast confused glances at his words. Azrael then asked

"Why?"

"It's just that this method would be a bit aggressive to your souls. If you were to get stronger, you could be independent of the light of life and souls to survive."

"I see..."

Azrael and Lucifer were thoughtful once again, and Metatron who had not spoken until now

"Look, Lord Rimuru. That's a good idea, but we get stronger over time. For a reaper to become twice as strong would take centuries. It's impossible in two days."

"I know. I'm still thinking about methods..."

Rimuru and the others decided to have some tea while Ciel finished his calculations. Azrael took nothing, but sat down as well.

"So Lord Rimuru. How can you be so powerful for a human, if I may ask?"

Metatron asked as he sipped his black tea. Rimuru realized that he was just trying to make conversation and said

"Well, I can say that I was lucky to meet the right people."

What Rimuru said was true. He was lucky to meet Veldora right after his rebirth and he was also lucky in other friendships that helped him like Milim and Ramiris who supported him as a demon lord. Before Metatron could ask anything...

"The tea looks good."

They heard a female voice coming from behind them and when they looked in their direction, there was Sariel dressed elegantly. Rimuru saw her and said...

"Sariel-san. Good to see you, come and sit down."

"Yes."

She sat down in a half old chair that was next to Rimuru. Rimuru poured her some tea and she thanked him. Then Lucifer asked.

"Why did you come, Sariel?"

Sariel took her tea and answered.

"Yes, that's because I...uh!?"

CRA

Before Sariel had finished speaking, one leg of his old chair broke. Sariel hadn't realized that the chair was that old and was surprised. She would not be hurt by falling off the chair, but it would be a bit embarrassing for someone as elegant as she was. So Rimuru held her by the waist so she wouldn't fall.

"Rimuru-dono!?"

Sariel was surprised to be held down and she widened her eyes and her cheeks flushed. Rimuru was going to ask if she was okay, but...

[Warning. A method to save the white city has been discovered].

Ciel spoke and Rimuru's eyes widened in surprise.

"Now?"

[Yes. That's because I was able to analyze the body structure of the reapers when the master touched Sariel].

"Then why didn't you ask me to analyze it before?"

[I didn't think it would be helpful. Since what needs strengthening are the souls, I thought that body analysis wouldn't change anything].

Rimuru asked why Ciel didn't analyze the reapers' bodies before, but apparently Ciel didn't find that useful.

"So, what is the method?"

Ciel explained the method and Rimuru turned off thought acceleration. He let go of Sariel's waist and said loudly....

"Okay, I figured out how to save you guys!"

●●●

The group was eating lunch while Rimuru analyzed the light of life.

"They have some great food here, right?"

"Yes. Truly."

Shia and Sakura spoke. Chloe also seemed to like the food and was eating everything she had a right to.

"They even have pepper..."

Chloe said and put pepper on her food. At this moment she felt someone looking at her and turned around to see who it was.

"Kaori?"

Chloe noticed Kaori staring at her and questioned. Kaori looked away embarrassed.

"Kaori, is it just me or are you looking away every time we look at each other?"

"Uh!? No, not really! I just..."

Kaori waved her hands forward trying to make up an excuse, but Sakura intervened before she could

"Now that you've spoken. Kaori-chan has been doing the same thing to me. Why is that?"

Sakura asked the other members of the group. Shia looked away and Tio opened the fan in front of his face. Hajime pretended not to hear. Myu didn't understand and it was Yue who answered...

"It's because we heard you guys doing 'it' last night.... The walls are thin..."

"Yue-san!?"

Yue spoke the truth and Kaori was surprised that she would reveal something like that. Sakura looked down with her cheeks slightly flushed and Chloe stopped eating and turned red like an apple.

"Yo..you guys heard the..that, but, but..."

Chloe was so embarrassed that she stuttered. She remembered all the things she said yesterday during sex to Rimuru and her face turned even redder. She also remembered the loud moans she gave and her face was already boiling...

Before Chloe could finish speaking, Yue spoke up...

"That's right, we heard you. Now tell us everything, I want to know the positions, rhythm, foreplay and especially what he did to you at the end. Tell us! Now, now!"

"No! This is too intimate to discuss!"

Yue sounded like an evil cop trying to get a criminal to confess. Chloe hid behind Sakura in shame as she tried to dodge Yue's questions. Yue then turned to Sakura

"What about you, Sakura? You know too, right? Tell us!"

Yue seemed really curious about the loud moans she heard at the end. Sakura drank her juice naturally, but her cheeks were slightly flushed. She then answered

"That's a secret. All I can say is that it was really great."

"Uuuuuuh..."

Yue looked annoyed that she didn't find out. Chloe was still hiding behind Sakura and the others were pretending not to hear anything. Myu then asked confused....

"What were the onee-chans doing with onii-san?"

"!!!"

  Everyone was dumbfounded by Myu's question and didn't know what to say. At this moment their salvation, Gabriel and Uriel approached....

"Hey, guys. Azrael came here to warn about saving the city or something. He wants us to gather in the main house, are you guys coming?"

Gabriel asked and they quickly agreed to get away from Myu's question. They went to the main house and when they entered, there were Rimuru, Lucifer, Raphael, Azrael, Metatron, Michael, and Sariel. They all sat down and Rimuru began to speak.

"Okay. Now that everyone is here, I can talk the way if saving the city."

Rimuru first explained to everyone that the Light of Life would explode in two days and kill all the reapers that were connected to it. He then explained that if the reapers got stronger, he could disconnect them from the Light of Life.

"So how are you going to make us stronger?"

"Uahaha. A great question Lucifer-san..."

Rimuru answered Lucifer with a Machiavellian laugh and continued

"I will nominate you."

"....."

Everyone was silent and cast confused looks. They did not understand what Rimuru meant by naming. Rimuru understood how they felt and so he explained

"You see, there are many races that when given names and become extremely more powerful.  You reapers are one of them, so I will name you."

"Uhh... Rimuru, I think I understand what you mean, but the reapers already have names..."

Yue was very knowledgeable and had heard of ancient races gaining power by being named. However just as Yue said, the reapers already had names. Rimuru then explained...

"I know. However, Raphael-san, could you explain to me where their names come from?"

Rimuru asked and Raphael stood up to answer.

"Yes... How can I put it... our names come along with our birth. They are the only thing we remember when we arise. We basically know at birth."

Raphael answered half confused by the question. Rimuru then continued to speak.

"Exactly. You only remember your name and that is different from being named. To be named, you need to be given a name by someone who is stronger than you. That will greatly multiply your power."

They were still confused about the naming. At that moment Sariel stood up and said

"If Rimuru-dono says that this is our only salvation. Then I think we should accept it... Please appoint me."

Sariel seemed strangely excited to be nominated by Rimuru. Rimuru thought this would be good to set an example for the others and approached

"Ok. Then you will be Sariel."

Rimuru decided to leave the names the same as he didn't want to have to make up a whole city of names. The last time he had to name many at once he ended up putting the same name on several and just added letters and numbers afterwards.

VOOOF

A white energy formed around Sariel and a rumbling resounded. This was normal in the evolution of higher beings, so Rimuru was not even surprised. The others were amazed at the energy that was emanating from Sariel and the resounding boom.

After a while the white energy crumbled and a new Sariel came out of it.

""Eh?"

Everyone, including Rimuru was confused.

Rimuru had expected a change in appearance as this was normal, but Sariel changed in everything. Her hair had turned brown, her skin was no longer pale and was now a beautiful skin color, her clothes were also different. She was wearing much shorter white colored clothes and even her magic bracelet that was her weapon had doubled and was on both arms.

She also had a golden tiara, and her previously black eyes were now light brown. These changes surprised the reapers and the group, but that was not what surprised Rimuru. What surprised him was that she had angel wings!

Sariel slowly approached Rimuru and knelt down.

"I thank you very much for the appointment Rimuru-sama. I am happy to say that thanks to you I have regained my memories and can properly introduce myself. I am Sariel, one of the 7 Archangels of Will created by Veldanava."