Ch 50: Before the Confrontation.

The girl.

The black-haired girl this person dreams about all night long. Always doing something different, but always the same girl. The girl is a hero.

Today she is sleeping. Sleeping serenely with nothing bothering her. The dreamer dreams of the sleeping girl. Her beautiful face had a serene expression. It was as if she did not care about anything. The mistress of the dream watches the girl, but no one notices her. The girl sleeps heroically.

PLAN PLAN

A bell rings, "Intruder!" A shout echoes in her dreams. The black-haired girl wakes up upon hearing the shout and stands up abruptly. She picks up her sword from under the bed and rushes out with a determined expression on her face. She is not running away from danger, she is heading towards it. The girl runs heroically.

Dreams are confusing and the dreamer doesn't realize where she is. The girl runs and sees soldiers. All fallen motionless. "Dead" the girl mutters as she sees them. The girl searches heroically for the intruder.

"Why does this keep repeating itself?" the dream's owner says as she realizes the strangeness. Why did the girl seem heroic in everything she did? She cannot help but wonder.

The girl runs around the cathedral she is in and looks for the intruder. Running and running, one hour she finds him. Thick colorful clothes and a clown mask. The intruder looks at her with a smile.

"If you move I will kill you." She said and raised her sword towards the intruder. A thin sword, but one that contained great power. The girl faced the clown heroically

"You can't kill me." The clown says smugly. "What?" she replies confused.

"Don't you know? It's me. Laplace. You didn't kill me last time and you won't now."

The girl could not utter a response to him. The owner of the dream watched this in confusion. She was standing behind the girl, but no one seemed to notice her.

"I don't understand you." The girl speaks after a while. The clown smiles. "You don't have to understand. Just understand that you can't change the past. Wake up to life. After all this is just a memory...Isn't it Sakura?" The clown says and turns to Sakura behind the girl.

"Wake up to life." The clown says in a horrifying tone. He repeats the same word several times.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up.

"Ah."

Sakura wakes up and takes a deep breath. She has an expression of astonishment and looks confused. She looks around startled and realizes she is inside a car.

"Sakura, are you okay?" She hears a voice coming from above. She looks in the direction of the voice and sees someone. Beautiful face, silver blue hair and golden eyes. It was her beloved. Sakura had fallen asleep on Rimuru's lap while he was driving.

"Uh, yes,. Yes, I am." She answers sleepily, but Rimuru could tell in her voice that she sounded frightened about something. He could tell this just by the change in her voice, obviously this was because she was his beloved.

"It's okay, we're almost there." Rimuru said with a smile. He lightly stroked her hair and Sakura hugged his waist. She seemed happy about something. That something was the fact that Rimuru had paid so much attention to her and noticed even the slightest change.

Rimuru went back to driving normally.

Sakura couldn't stop thinking about the dream she had.

●●●

"Kufufufu they are coming." A black haired demon said with an evil smile. It was Diablo.

Here were Diablo, Shuna and Benimaru. Besides them here were also: Masayuki, who was the new Emperor of the Nasca Empire, Dwarf King Gazel, Empress Elmezia of the Sorcerer Dynasty of Thalion and Prince Raymond of Ingracia, representing the Western Nations. By the way, this prince was not the one who tried to kill Rimuru at the first Council meeting. It was his younger brother.

All these representatives were here in the far East of the continent. Prylo, a small town to the East of the Empire. This was where the visitors from the other continent would arrive. That was predicted according to the route they took.

"Yes, they are. Those ships look pretty advanced indeed." Benimaru said as he looked out to sea. There were 4 metal ships there that seemed to function by magical means. This was likely as Diablo could scan far away and detected magic running through the ship, but his scan from afar was not so specific.

"I hope we won't have any problems. [Sigh]" Gazel looked exhausted. In fact he was mentally worn out, as these past few days had been exhausting. This was because Gazel was on his day off when he was found out about the ships and having an emergency notice took him out of that. On top of that he had a lot of paperwork these past few days. Warning an entire continent about something in 5 days was really exhausting. Several countries and rulers needed to be warned and many of them talked to Gazel about the 'visitors'.

"Don't worry, no matter what happens, we will try to dialogue." Shuna said with a serene smile on her face. Shuna was great at calming people down, which is why she was chosen as one of Tempest's representatives.

"He-he-he, but if they want to, we won't hesitate to battle." Diablo said and gave another of his usual laughs. Benimaru nodded and no one seemed to disagree.

"Exactly as Sir Diablo says, if we are attacked we will have no qualms about retaliating!" Prince Raymond of Ingracia said confidently. Even Raymond was not intimidated by the sight of the technologically advanced ships. This was because today technology had advanced quite a bit and on the continent there were airplanes, trains and other advanced technology.

"I think it would be good if we could settle this peacefully." Masayuki said scratching the back of his neck. He still didn't know how to behave like an emperor, but that wasn't important. Masayuki these days was finally able to control his King of Heroes skill(which evolved from the unique skill 'Chosen'), but the damage was already done and everyone always treated him like a hero, even the prince of Ingracia who was here was not the exception.

"I'm back. There is no one in the vicinity."

"Grynd-san."

A blue-haired woman landed and Masayuki smiled upon seeing her. It was Velgrynd. She had come along with Masayuki and was checking the area so far. She did this to make sure that no idiots would interfere with the first contact with the natives from the other continent. They didn't want to give a bad first impression.

Velgrynd stood beside Masayuki and everyone waited for the ships to dock. After a few minutes one of the ships arrived close to the beach. Some of the crew got off the ship and looked around with cautious eyes.

By the way, normally these world leaders would walk with an entourage of guards, but since everyone hated this they used as an excuse that Benimauru and Diablo had the same strength as demon lords and Velgrynd was a True Dragon. So if the visitors attacked, there was no way they would be protected anymore. Which was true.

All these crew members were wearing gray military clothing and all of them were human males. They had a symbol on their clothes that seemed to represent their nation. This symbol was on their chest and represented two crossed spears.

No matter how you looked at it, these men were soldiers. The men in gray walked down the beach and after a while they noticed Benimaru and the others watching them. One of the soldiers gave a warning shout and everyone looked in his direction. Another soldier ran into the ship and after a few minutes a man in a black military uniform came out of the ship. This man looked to be around 50 years old, had gray hair, blue eyes and carried a sheathed katana.

This man was probably the captain of this platoon, as he was the only one in different clothes and the others treated him with respect.

"Let's go talk to them." Benimaru said and everyone agreed. Now was the time. They walked to the beach slowly. The captain and his soldiers also walked to the beach to talk to them.

......

...

...

"Greetings, visitors from the other continent. We are the leaders sent to welcome you. We hope to be able to have a dialogue with you. I am Empress Elmezia of the Sorceress Dynasty of Sarion and these are ..."

Elmesia introduced the other members. The man in black cast her a look that seemed to analyze her as she spoke, within that same look one could see curiosity. Meanwhile the soldiers in gray were looking at Elmezia, Benimaru, Shuna and Diablo with negative expressions.

"Is there a problem? Do you guys understand us?" Elmezia interrupted the introductions as she was confused. She thought that the "language translation" magic might be failing. However that was not the case. One of the angry soldiers took two steps forward.

"How dare you speak to Captain Geist without asking permission? Show respect and bow down, you inferior race."

The soldier in gray insulted Elmezia and the other soldiers also seemed hostile towards her.    Yet the so-called "captain" rolled his eyes for some reason.

Oh-oh, that was not good. Gazel realized that things were not going in a good way and Elmezia had a serious look on her face. This look scared the soldier a little. Even though Elmezia was not as strong as an awakened demon lord, her strength was much greater than a non-awakened one and this man was being extremely rude.

"Kufufu, it looks like the dialogue will be difficult." It wasn't just Diablo who thought this way. All the representatives in this place(minus Masayuki) knew how to decipher people through their words, and they saw that these people were troublesome.

Benimaru, Shuna and Diablo started talking in low voices about what to do, and that seemed to irritate this same soldier.

"You there! Who do you think you are!? Kneel down before us! Don't you 'non-humans'know how to show respect?" He sneered at them and looked at King Gazel "You should tame them better." He spoke as if he were advising him.

Incidentally, none of the men seemed surprised that another continent existed, so it's likely that they already knew of its existence and just hadn't made contact yet.

"Kufufufu, what a funny fellow."

"Fu, Diablo-kun is right, he really does say unbelievable things."

"Yes, he should think before he speaks."

Diablo, Benimaru and Shuna smiled and chatted "Your eyes Aren't smiling!" That was the only thing Prince Raymond could think of. Raymond was actually quite afraid of Rimuru's subordinates. Especially Diablo. Diablo's reputation was well known to the world, not only his personality, but also the fact that he was the black Primordial "Noir". So every time Diablo smiled Raymond felt a chill down his spine.

Incidentally, the fact that Diablo was coming held off several country representatives who wanted to come. Which was a good thing, because it would be bad to have too many people during the negotiations.

The soldiers seemed angry that Benimaru, Shuna and Diablo were treating them lightly. They were casting hateful glances, and the one in front of them pulled something from his waistband. It was a pistol.

The man aimed the gun at Benimaru and issued a threat.

"Are you sure you won't bow down?"

"No I won't. I think you'd better put that down if you don't want to start a hostile relationship."

Benimaru was a direct servant of Rimuru and one of the "Twelve Patrons" his strength was almost as much or even greater than an awakened demon lord and there are few people he would bow down to.

The soldier kept his sights on Benimaru.

"I think it is you who should bow down." Elmezia didn't even care about the weapon and continued in her calm tone "You are facing many important people here, so I think you should be more prudent."

That was true. Everyone there had highly elevated positions and a mere soldier not bowing to them was unthinkable. They were thinking of forgiving this as there was no way the soldiers from another continent would have known this in their first encounter, but now the soldiers were being disrespectful.

However instead of bowing, the other soldiers also drew and aimed their weapons. Some soldiers who were still on the ships also pointed long-barrelled weapons in their direction.

"We are the soldiers of the great and sacred Losukie country. We will bow to no one but the Messengers. We will take this land as our own!" all the soldiers gave war cries and the soldier in front continued speaking "You non-humans will become slaves and the others will inform their leaders to surrender to our country."

"" "..." ""

"Kufufufufufufufufu"

Everyone was silent and only Diablo's laughter was audible.

Are these guys serious?

This question crossed everyone's mind.

The soldiers hadn't even talked to them and were already talking about taking over their land and making them slaves. They had obviously not come in peace. They didn't even seem to have heard their names and titles, as they said that the "humans" should warn their leaders about surrendering. In this case themselves.

This country did not look friendly at all. Not only that, but their soldiers or even the country itself seemed to be quite arrogant, as they didn't even measure the strength of the enemy and were already threatening them with weapons.

"Looks like we're not going to have friendly relations." Gazel said and drew his sword. "Stay behind me" Velgrund warned Masayuki and Raymond who were the only weak ones there.

"You guys must be idiots. Captain, may I give the order to --- Bluawh!!!"

The soldier was about to give the order to fire, but was stopped by his captain.

Captain Geist until now was quiet and just watching the situation, but when the soldier was about to attack he pulled out his katana and slit the soldier's throat.

This surprised everyone, including the soldiers who were on the ships still.

"Captain Geist! Why did you--" Another soldier perished by Geist's katana before he could speak. The other soldiers were dumbfounded and Geist began to attack all of them.

"Captain, stop! No!"

One more dead.

"Stay back! Hiii!"

Another.

"The captain has betrayed us! Aaaaaaah!"

"Shoot him!"

Geisy was too fast for the soldiers to keep up and they couldn't even draw their weapons.

"We have to help them!" Prince Raymond said in a rush, but was stopped by Diablo who put his arm in the way.

In fact Raymond was the only one who wanted to help, since the soldiers were about to try to kill them. So no one moved a finger to interfere.

"Shoot the captain!"

After Captain Geist killed all the soldiers on the beach the soldiers who were still on the ships recovered from their surprise and aimed their guns. Geist realizing this took out a device from his pocket and pressed a small button on this device. It was then...

KABOOOOM

All five ships exploded at the same time and all soldiers inside died.

Geist showed a satisfied look and sighed. He turned to Benimaru and the others.

"I am sorry for the inconvenience. My real name is Roy Banklary and I am a member of the resistance. I hope we can have a dialogue."

Everyone looked at Geist/Roy as if analyzing him. That was understandable given what he just did.

"He-he-he, we can certainly dialogue." Diablo was the first to respond.

"Well, you killed the people I was going to kill, so you saved me the trouble."

After Benimaru gave his agreement, the others didn't deny it, even if they were all wary.

●●●

"We're here."

Rimuru stopped the car on a hill from where you could see the capital of the Haihiri Kingdom.

Everyone got down from the car, grabbed their weapons, and looked at the situation in the city.

War.

The city was at war. Several demons and Magical Beasts were attacking the barriers that protected the city.

"How many..."

"If you count Demons and Magic Beasts it's just over a hundred thousand."

Ciel responded to Shia's murmur and calculated the strength of his opponents. "In addition I detected 'space magic' magic circles that lead to a location where nine hundred thousand more can be found." She added after finishing her analysis.

Liliana was dumbfounded by her words, but the rest of the group did not consider it such a threat. Obviously that was because they had people who could handle it easily. Rimuru and Chloe.

"Rimuru, can you do it?" Yue asked, because even knowing Rimuru's strength, it was still kind of unrealistic to destroy an army of a million.

"Yes don't worry. In fact, I'll stop time so it's easier to ---"

"Space-time blocking."

Before Rimuru could finish speaking, he heard a voice coming from above. At the exact moment this voice was heard, everyone felt a great pressure falling on the scene.

Liliana stepped down. Everyone looked up to the sky and there they saw a man with blue hair and eyes, wearing casual clothes of the same color.

"You are..." Akame began to remember the description he received from Eht. The description that matched exactly with this man who was floating in front of him. The same man who held great power and would heal his hands.

"... The leader of the gods, Velda."

"Oh, it seems the traitor recognizes me."

Velda was surprised to see Akame here, he had received information that she had died.

"Ah, so this is your new appearance! Why are you here?" Rimuru asked in a casual tone, but he was on the lookout for any movement from Velda.

Rimuru realized that the first few words Velda said exactly what she was saying. A space-time block. Rimuru tried to stop time before, but couldn't. He also tried to use one of his "Void God Azatoth" space barriers, but it didn't work.

"Ciel-san."

"Yes."

Rimuru didn't even have to speak, and Ciel went back inside him. Rimuru didn't know how strong Velda was now, but he thought it best to be cautious.

"Why are you here?"

"Huhuhu, I came here because this is a battle that you will not participate in." He said with a smile.

"So you will stop me? Why?"

"That is my business. And yes, I will stop you."

"I see."

Rimuru thinks Velda was different. Before he was arrogant and serious, but his personality now seemed more psychopathic than before.

PCHIN

Rimuru did not hesitate and attacked with his katana. Velda pulled out an all-black western sword and defended. This sword was releasing an unknown red energy.

Velda smiled at Rimuru and walked away. Rimuru knew that a confrontation with Velda would cause a lot of damage to the surroundings, so he decided to do something about it. He asked Ciel and got a suggestion.

"Union Prison."

Rimuru isolated him and Zelda by making a large cube around them. This cube had walls that glowed white and was formed by the union of all the elements. Normally Rimuru would use his space barriers, but Velda had blocked this with an unknown method.

This cube around them would not trap Velda, but would provide protection to the surroundings.

Rimuru and Velda crossed swords once again.

●●●

"Kaori-san, how is she?"

'She's fine, she just fainted."

Shia looked worried and Kaori was analyzing Liliana. It seemed that she had fainted from fright. That was normal since Velda's pressure was frightening. It was actually impressive that Kaori had stayed upright since she was the weakest after Liliana.

"I wonder what's going on in there?"

Hajime wondered looking at the glowing cube hundreds of feet tall.

"That guy was scary." Shia shuddered as she remembered.

"Don't worry, Rimuru-san will be fine."

"That's right."

Hajime was impressed by how confident Chloe and Sakura were. He had felt the pressure coming off Velda, so he wasn't as confident.

"Well, Rimuru is a real monster too, so there's nothing to worry about." Yue commented nonchalantly. She had been scared too, but Rimuru seemed pretty confident to her.

"Yes, I don't think it's possible for anyone to defeat him."

Rimuru was training Akame for her to use her ability, so they had fought a few times already. So she had already experienced the tyranny of his power.

"Hey, you guys could talk about these things in a better way, you know?"

Everyone heard a familiar voice and looked in her direction. And there was Rimuru.

" ""...."" "

Shouldn't you be there? That question flashed through everyone's mind.

"Oioi, Rimuru you..."

"Should I not be there? Yes, I am there. Actually this me here is just a clone and doesn't have much power. So I've come to talk to you guys a little bit. Let's be quick because I don't have much time."

Rimuru had no connection to the outside while he was fighting Velda and would not be able to make a clone. So Ciel gave the idea to Make a small hole in the Cube to have some connection with the outside. This hole was smaller than the hole in a needle and Velda would never notice, but it was big enough to pass a silk thread through which Rimuru was using on controlling this clone. However this thread would not last long, as the battle was generating damage on all sides and the thread would soon be cut.

Rimuru wanted to speak as quickly as possible.

"Okay, first that."

Rimuru pointed to the 'Mountain of God' that was in the capital. It was only when Rimuru pointed there that they noticed a glow coming out of the top of the mountain. This glow was slowly getting stronger.

"Apparently an army sent by the gods or something is going to come out of there. I don't know what they're going to try, but I want you to stop it."

The others were surprised by the information, but didn't say anything, since Rimuru didn't have much time.

"However that army is going to be pretty strong and at the moment the only ones who can stand up to it are Chloe and Akame-san."

They made melancholy expressions when Rimuru said that. In other words, it was an enemy they couldn't face.

"So, Hajime-kun, I wanted to do something."

"Something?"

"Yes, I have a method of making you stronger, but it won't be pleasant at all." Rimuru looked hesitant, but Hajime just said, "Let's go."

Rimuru was a bit surprised, but it was a fact that Hajime had already suffered from monster flesh and suffering pain to gain power was already the norm for him.

"Ok then let's go." Rimuru pointed his hand at Hajime and did what he wanted. Hajime began to feel a strong headache and put his hands on his head. He fell to his knees and let out a groan of pain.

The girls had pained expressions when they saw this, but they didn't interfere.

What Rimuru was doing was pushing Hajime's mind to the limit in various methods. This was suggested by Ciel, as it was the only method to make Hajime "awaken" sooner. That awakening in this case would be to a "Saint". Ciel had detected that this would be possible for Hajime.

A Saint was one of the three realms of power that a human could attain. The first Realm was the "Wisdom" that Rimuru got Hajime through easily, as it was not as powerful. This Realm could rival an unawakened demon lord. Any human could reach this realm if they trained hard

The second realm "Saint" took at least a decade to reach, but if the user went through an experience where his mind was pushed to the limit (like a tragedy or disaster) the awakening would occur sooner. The Saints had a strength, somewhat inferior to the awakened Demon Lords. This Realm could only be reached by those who had the 'hero's egg'.

The third was 'true hero' and had no specific way to be reached. The only thing known is that a hero awakens when his 'hero's egg' hatches. A hero has almost twice the strength of an awakened demon lord. However, it was quite difficult for true heroes to exist.

Chloe was an awakened hero, but she was much more powerful than one. That's because she had two 'hero eggs' after a series of events.

{N: An awakened demon lord is a very vague term. For example, Guy is one, but he has much greater power. The strength of an awakened demon lord is the same as Ruminas or Diablo.}

[Warning. unique skill, "Blacksmithing" acquired].

The voice of the world echoed in Hajime's mind. Hajime already had Supreme Skills received in the dungeons, but since they were "received" skills and not "developed" they didn't have their full power. Having the same power as a single skill. But now he had developed a skill. This skill was basically the same as the one he received in the Orcus Dungeon, but it was still at the "unique" level, so if it evolved to "supreme" it would be stronger.

Incidentally, Hajime and the girls knew about the skills, as Rimuru explained them.

It didn't stop there.

[Warning. single skill "Acceleration" acquired].

[Warning. Single skill "Heat" acquired.]

These two skills were very good and even complemented each other. "Acceleration" allowed Hajime to manipulate the speed not only of his own body and abilities, but also of other things he touched. "Heat" exactly as it said, allowed Hajime to manipulate temperature and that would help him power his shots, not only that, but with "acceleration" he could generate more heat.

Rimuru realized that Hajime had acquired more power and gained new abilities.

"I think it's over."

Hajime awakened as a Saint.

Hajime stopped suffering headaches and stood up. Now Hajime was a spirit life form, and would not be killed so easily. A spirit life form had great control over its body, and even if it was wounded in the heart, it would not die.

Spirit life forms needed to be killed by special attacks or they would not be injured.

Hajime would take time to master all the powers of this body, but his strength increased greatly. In addition, he had more stamina and high control over his body. After he had completely mastered his body he could even regenerate lost limbs (with enough magic).

Hajime felt something being thrown at him. It was a 99% healing potion.

"What?"

Hajime felt his arm and metallic eye being pushed away by something. That something was his arm and eye that had fully recovered.

"That..."

Hajime was dumbfounded.

"Now that you have this strength, the artificial arm would no longer serve, so I healed you."

That was true. Hajime's artificial arm gave him more strength, but now that he had multiplied his power several times, the arm was weaker than his own flesh.

"Uhhh, thanks, I guess." Hajime said still analyzing his new strength.

"You guys go ahead then. You guys have a town to save and I have an idiot to beat up."

Hearing Rimuru everyone headed for the town as quickly as possible. Rimuru's clone had not yet been destroyed.

[Master, I have an idea].

"You may speak Ciel-san."

Ciel then told Rimuru an idea that could help in the battle and he was impressed.

"Oh! Can it be done?"

[Yes.]

"But won't I get in the way of something?"

[Probably not.]

"If you say so..."

Rimuru put his hand on the ground and a giant red-colored magic circle appeared at his feet.

"Get out!"

The magic circle glowed brightly.