39th Move | Alea Iacta Est

Alea Iacta Est, the die is cast and there is no going back.

A near unanimous agreement for 'Yes' instead of 'Nay' really surprised me. Though probably shouldn't have after the fact that I absolved them of any wrongdoing by placing the blame on me. They can rest easy, knowing that the blood will be on my hands when we revived Rimuru.

Everyone in the room was sworn to secrecy using a Geas. This was especially important since no one could know what was going to happen. It's a Directive-level state secret that can cause exceptional damage to Tempest's national security, interest, and international standing among other world powers.

As they sign the scrolls, I couldn't help but note how powerful a Geas is. They bind any being, a legend from Dwargon speaks of how a Geas could bind even True Dragons.

It wasn't known who made the first Geas. Many people throughout history have claimed to have made the first Geas, but none could definitively prove it. What could be proven was that whoever made the first Geas must be so powerful in the art of magic that even True Dragons respect them.

For the rest of the day, I helped with the disaster relief efforts. First, I made shelter by setting up a preprogrammed fabricator and had it churn out easy-to-set-up, yet sturdy and warm tents at an extremely fast rate. Then, with [Technopathy], I was able to telekinetically take control of those piles of trillions of fine silicon particles and dump them inside recyclers the size of an American suburban house.

I plan on recycling the glass and reforming them back into windows.

After everything was cleaned up, the jaws of those who watched as I worked thoroughly dropped, I moved to repair the electric grid, debating on whether to finally transition all electronics in Tempest to room-temperature superconductors instead of silicon.

The 'yes' part won out, so I used [Technopathy] and reached across interstellar space toward one of my Subspace Entropic Nanoreplication Fabricators and had them make a few tons worth of superconducting carbon nanotubes and deposit them using a Doorway.

It took five minutes, and a ball of carbon nanotubes came out of a newly opened Doorway. The nanotubes by themselves are thin enough that it's invisible to all visual wavelengths of light, but taken together, they're just like how individual water vapor and appear like this spherical 'cloud' of greyness that is translucent around the edges.

If taken apart, I can wrap this single line of carbon nanotubes around the planet I inhabit many, many times over.

With primarily [Electronics] and [Infrastructure] guiding [Technopathy] and a dash of help from [Great Sage], Metropolis' grid was fixed in no time, and by about an hour after sunset, almost all the damages aside from the peeled buildings have been repaired.

[Technopathy] really is the dream Skill for someone like me, to control my technology as if it's an extension of myself.

By the time midnight rolled around, we were able to complete a headcount of every individual within Metropolis and found that there were zero civilian casualties. As for the knights that Arcueid had slain en mass, we cremated the remains of their bodies and placed them inside canisters that are then buried in mass graves deep inside the Jura Forest.

One human bureaucrat did protest this move since apparently funerals involving cremation were usually reserved for those poorer families who couldn't afford the coffin. Since these are knights, the bureaucrat argued that they should be given a better funeral.

The objection was dismissed when an Officer gave the bureaucrat a photo of those knights' remains.

In any normal situation, I would chastise Arcueid harshly for killing someone, probably harsher than I've ever had. But since she did it for protecting the citizens, I really can't.

While the remains were being cremated, I then had Ririna sent Officers to tell our people and explain to them exactly what happened and how we're at war with Falmuth.

[Psychology] says the main reason that there wasn't too much chaos was how quickly we've managed to get everything under control, and with a mix of police and Officers constantly patrolling, it gave the people a sense of security.

I think how quickly we treated the wounded and how Ririna distributed stored rations from a nearby military base to the population so that no one goes hungry alongside running water definitely helped with the prevention of a breakdown of social order.

Our war support against Falmuth was through the roof. Though we haven't yet told the public about the assassination of President Rimuru, I decided to create a near-perfect hologram of him and had that projection do some speeches to get people's hopes up.

Seeing the cheers of those people underneath a holographic Rimuru reminded me again of the fact that I'll need to tell one of the strongest beings in existence about the death of the actual Rimuru.

It was only when it the early morning that I finally ran out of repairs to do aside from the mirrors and had no more reasons to not tell Veldora anymore.

As I opened a Doorway with [Technopathy] on top of one of the shortest arcologies, I halted in my movement.

There's a feeling of dread inside my mind. Veldora in the past always brought destruction to wherever he goes. As such, the Western States thought of Veldora as something more akin to an unstoppable natural disaster like a hurricane. In fact, back then before Veldora's sealing, instead of hurricane season, there were Veldora Seasons that usually go from mid-summer to early autumn.

While he may seemingly be pacified now, will he still be after I told him the news?

I look down at my hands, a thought had just occurred to me: I fear Veldora. On a subconscious level, I'm afraid of that Storm Dragon that can easily incapacitate me, which [Psychology] explains as the reason why I've never really spent too much time with him.

Suddenly, I had a desire to not walk through that Doorway. The inky darkness framed by purple was really adding to the sinister look, making the Doorway appear somewhat like a black hole.

An inescapable black hole, an event horizon sheathing a singularity.

I had half a thought of preparing a teleporter before chastising myself.

Veldora is like family to me, why should I be afraid of him?

Against my better judgment, I decided to walk through the Doorway without anything prepared. Appearing on the other side, I found myself in a long dimly lit hallway with a door on one end.

The long hallway gave a sense of ominousness and only added fuel to my dread. I felt like a protagonist in a horror movie, where I entered a haunted house and found myself mere seconds away from the killer popping out in a jump scare.

A single wave of my hand and usage of [Technopathy] made everything much brighter as I had the lights on the ceiling consume more power.

Oh yeah, that's right, why should I be afraid when I'm surrounded by my technology?

Feeling much more confident, I took long strides and reach the door to Veldora's room in less than a minute.

Knocking on it, I waited for a few moments before a voice called out, "Come in."

Pushing the door in, I was met by a room that wouldn't look out of place in a sitcom like The Big Bang Theory. While the furniture was relatively mundane, the bookshelves were filled with figurines of various characters that I don't recognize at all, and there were Japanese comics stacked on top of the coffee table. Veldora himself resided inside his human form and was lying on the couch, a bag of snacks beside him and a closed comic on his chest.

"Yo Scientia, so have you found out where's Rimuru?" Veldora asked while waving a two-finger 'hello'.

'Yo'? My right eyebrow raised, is he picking up slang from the books he's reading? Immediately, my mind made the comparison with Arcueid.

Which then made me recall the Casino Incident. And then how my spending additional time with her has become something of a currency between the two of us.

"So..." I breathed out while trailing off, the previous ideas I had about how to tell Veldora the news fluttered away like doves. Fortunately, [Social Engineering] was there to back me up, "Before I tell you that, you know how Souls are made out of these tiny particles that serve as the most basic building blocks?"

"You mean Spiritrons?"

"..." Is that what people like Veldora call Essence? "Sure, let's go with that. Anyway, I found a way to resurrect someone from their most basic spiritual particles, those that are so small and so foundational that they are indivisible."

Veldora looked at me with a mix of confusion and awe, probably because according to [Great Sage] no one had ever resurrected someone using only their Essence. [Magic]'s resurrection spell requires the Soul to be at least somewhat intact, not completely deconstructed as it is right now.

I'm going to need to study more about Metaphysics after this fiasco is all done.

"Seriously?" I nodded, and Veldora's eyes widened, "that's amazing! I don't think anyone has ever previously done that before! How does it work?"

Veldora's words reminded me of how whenever I tried to ask him about things that occurred in the past, he would usually clamp up. [Psychology] theorized he may have a minor case of PTSD, though the specialty wasn't too sure.

"As you know, a Demon Lord's Ascension causes the reality around it to become more 'fluid'. I can use that fluidity as a lubricant and rebuild someone that way."

"Interesting" Veldora got up from his lying down position, "now come on, tell me where Rimuru is. Did I do something wrong for him to ignore me? Did something happen to him?"

I glanced to the side, and my apprehensive look must've given it away that something happened to Rimuru as in the next second, Veldora jumped up from his couch and landed on top of me.

With him on top of me, I was pinned to the ground. I struggled, but with Veldora gripping my shoulders, I was entirely trapped.

"He's alright, isn't he? Come on Scientia, don't you also join him in this joke that's gone too far! Tell me Rimuru's alright!"

Worry was clear in Veldora's voice.

My lips thinned, before sighing, "Rimuru is..."

There was a flash of hope inside Veldora's eyes, and his smile brightened.

I adverted my gaze.

"Dead. His Soul was broken apart down to the smallest building blocks. BUT I HAVE A WAY OF RESURRECTING RIMURU!"

I made sure to emphasize that last bit. Yet despair filled the True Dragon's face even in spite of my best attempt. Veldora let go of me and took a few sluggish steps back, almost as if he was afraid of me.

"Veldora, I can revive Rimuru." Hearing no response, I opened my mouth to repeat what I just said before it was suddenly forced closed.

An aura slightly less than that THING emanated from deep within Veldora. Blue veins grew up his neck as more and more of the aura of a True Dragon was unleashed.

Oh fuck.

"VELDORA STOP!" I screamed, "I can revive Rimuru! It's still not too late!"

The wind that swirled around the room drowned out what I was saying, forcing me to push my throat to its limits, "LISTEN TO ME GOD DAMN IT! I CAN FIX THIS! I CAN—"

FEAR.

Veldora turned his attention to me. I felt indescribably tiny in the face of that Maxwell's Demon. Well, it makes sense, I am a being with limits, one that obeys entropy. Maxwell's Demons don't, they are violations of the second law of Thermodynamics where the total entropy of a closed system is decreased without doing any work. True Dragons in particular are Cosmological Reversal Machines that reverse entropy.

"Who?" Veldora snarled, his tone was a low menacing one that demanded a reply. It was one that would cause whoever heard it to instantly stop whatever they were doing and tend to the speaker's needs, "Who was it that killed Rimuru?"

No words came out of my mouth. I could barely even register what Veldora said. My fight-or-flight instinct kicked into overdrive as my legs shook as if the temperature in the room was below freezing.

I couldn't think. Or more accurately, I couldn't think of anything other than trying to weigh whether to fight or flee.

[Silenced Emotion: 90%]

Instantly, I seized the driver's seat from my more instinctual self and whipped out the Strings Implant. At the same time, black streaks of nanites crawled up and covered my head, forming a helmet.

Pitch-black threads made from knotted spacetime shot out from my fingertips. Those threads wrapped around Veldora and bound him, stopping him in place and preventing him from moving.

However, the binding backfired when Veldora fully released his aura.

The room was blasted away like it was a sand castle. The remains of the four walls, floor, and ceiling streamed around Veldora at speeds comparable to a high-speed train. Particles of debris stabbed into my nanosuit uselessly

The very atmosphere itself listened to Veldora and became a weapon— a weapon that followed Veldora's desires to be free, and since I was the one who captured him, the atmosphere became hostile.

I could feel the air rush out of my lungs and not return, causing my lung to collapse into themselves due to the air pressure. Thankfully, I never really needed to breathe anyways, and the nanosuit armor is protecting me from the wind and debris.

Veldora himself became a blob of blinding light, radiating pure magicule that contained the rage of a True Dragon.

He was transforming into his True Dragon form!

My fingers curled inward, causing the spacetime strings to tighten and restrict his form from getting any larger.

Then, as Veldora was trapped, my mind couldn't help but think of how the Strings Implant wasn't able to entrap that THING. To somehow be able to control spacetime better than I can... I could almost feel the indignation from [Spacetime Engineering]

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT VELDORA! I CAN SAVE RIMURU!"

In response, Veldora let out a roar so loud that I was blinded, first by a flash of light and later by the plasma wave.

PAIN.

<Decibel registered at: 300>

Decibels beyond 194 are intense enough to cause the air to turn into plasma, which is exactly what that first blinding flash of light was. That explosive wave of plasma slammed into me and burned away enough of my nanosuit that it could no longer protect me.

At least, it protected me enough from the heat, but not the force.

I felt all my bones shatter into a thousand pieces, turning me into a kind of human octopus that would've flopped to the floor like a mannequin without strings had it not been for an exoskeleton. The exoskeleton was a congregation of what remained of my nanosuit.

Some kind of cool liquid dripped out of my closed eyelids and ears.

No wait, that's my blood and those that dripped out of my eyes were visceral.

Huh, guess my eyeballs that were obliterated by the kinetic force.

Somehow, it didn't really concern me.

The exoskeleton wasn't enough as I could feel my face caved in. So to compensate I sent out more spacetime strings and had them wrap around me, turning into something like a puppet only I'm the puppet master. Then, I sent out an explosion of strings to keep me strung up in the air like I was some kind of spider spinning its webs.

The liquefaction didn't just stop at my eyeballs. A single touch of my chest using my right hand covered in a net of strings found how easily they gave in, signifying that all of my insides were liquified into a consistency similar to your average gas station slushy.

It was incredibly painful, but it was nothing compared to the pain I felt when I lost Rimuru, so I push on.

I tried to yell and in response, bits of nanites crawled up and solidified to mold my broken jawbone into something like before.

"Pfft"

Because of the pain, I didn't notice how all of my teeth were shattered alongside my skull. Licking it, I found that the root of the teeth was still there, just that the top was shattered like a tree after it's been chopped off.

If I remained a human, I think I'd have been vaporized. Or at least be spread across a space the size of a baseball diamond like the peanut butter on a piece of bread if the heat didn't vaporize me.

I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't feel, I couldn't smell, I could only taste since the tongue is at least somewhat intact.

Thus I focused on the taste of iron in my mouth, and feel the texture of the disgusting cocktail of my blood and broken chunks of my teeth.

<<For Experiencing pain that most mortals would die from, you have gained the Extra Skill: [Extreme Pain Resistence]>>

Feeling pieces of your eyes drip out of their socket is NOT a pleasant feeling.

Feeling vindictive for the ungodly pain, I tightened the strings even more as if to discipline a misbehaving dog.

Next, I used [Technopathy] and had Doormaker create a Doorway a few meters behind Veldora.

A few moments later, I can somewhat hear again as my eardrums partially healed themselves from that roar.

<Use of [Dragon Claws], registered>

My eyes were still blurry. I could only see general shapes and colors, nothing too detailed can be made out.

From what little I can tell was that there were movements of light. The way those lights moved was mesmerizing, like those auroras I saw when I visited Yellowknife in my past life.

It took a few more moments for my eyes to fully heal, and for me to realize those 'lights' were actually massive claw extensions that came out of Veldora's hands. The mesmerizing movements? Those were his attempts at cutting the spacetime strings.

There were scratches all over his body as a side effect of his attempts to gain freedom.

If I let Veldora go free now, and if he manages to break free from the Citadel, everyone A-rank and below with the Jura Forest will die as the True Dragon's aura is unleashed fully.

Veldora continuously lets out animalistic growling noises as he struggled against the threads binding him, completely unable to move. So instead, it does what its rage-induced mind thinks is the best next course of action:

Attack the owner of the thread.

AKA: me.

<Use of [Death Heralding Wind], detected>

In the next moment, I was encompassed in a black sphere of wind. It felt claustrophobic, so I tried to move.

"Ssss— ah!" The moment I touched the edge of that black barrier, the tips of my fingers were shaved right off, leaving only those same spacetime strings.

Then, the edge of the black sphere closed in, and the real horror sets in.

In ancient China, there was a method of torture and execution known as 'Lingchi', or death by a thousand cuts. In this method, a knife will be used to carefully and strategically take chunks of flesh out of the subject's body over a period of time. This slow method of torture/execution was reserved for the likes of traitors, and now, Veldora saw fit to give it to me, only much faster.

You know, despite all this, my mind couldn't help but draw a comparison to those temple raider games where the walls of the room are slowly closing in on our trapped protagonist.

I felt the tip of my toes gets slowly scraped off, the black sphere shaving away a hundred paper cuts worth of flesh every second.

A hundred paper cuts...

A daring idea crossed my mind.

I shot out more and more strings of spacetime in such a way that I resembled the rock on a slingshot.

With a single movement of my left index finger, I flung myself and a trapped Veldora through the opened Doorway.

.

.

.

Weightlessness, suffocating silence, and darkness renewed.

I was momentarily confused by the renewed darkness.

I should be able to see stars, where are the stars? Then I realized that, ah, it seems when I rushed out of that cage of swirling wind, I blinded myself again.

Do I even have any skin left? Probably not. I probably look like a lump of bleeding flesh.

... You know, I think if I were still human, such a thought would've disturbed me, but now after half a year of my new life, losing an arm makes me more frustrated at the time wasted on waiting for it to grow back.

I was in the middle of interstellar space. I imagined that Veldora, the Storm Dragon probably can't do anything in a place where the density of atoms is in the hundreds per cubic meter instead of quadrillions.

Wind exists because of the fluid nature of air. One can think of them as currents and tides in an ocean of gases.

I continued to drift out there in the comforting void of the space between stars, unseeing, unhearing, and unfeeling.

It's peaceful.

I think I'll return Veldora after I fully regenerated. Should take a few minutes at most. I could almost feel my bones fully straighten after all.

"..."

Am I delirious? I wanted to ask but no sound came out.

I was shocked out of this sense of peacefulness when I felt a breeze of wind touching my back.

What the fuck?!

<The wind is generated by Veldora. Upon analysis, these winds possess no anomalous properties and behave just like regular wind should, despite it existing in space>

With my eyes partially healed, I could see a vague human-shaped darkness that blot out the field of starlight.

Veldora? Has he finally calmed down?

I reached out to that darkness, but all of my fingers were gone and only a forearm remained.

I flinched when I felt something touch my right forearm. Then I felt something touch my left shoulder. I felt a wall of heat next to me, did Veldora bring me in for a princess carry?

Such a thing horrified me beyond all reason. It took me conscious efforts to not try and scramble out of Veldora's reach.

It seems the last few minutes reinforced that fear of the Storm Dragon.

Once my vision regenerated further, I saw a serene expression on Veldora's face. Finally, he calmed down.

Note to self: bring the Gravastar Armor the next time you meet Veldora. Just in case something like this happens again.

Now that the wind is no longer cutting me into slices of sashimi, I felt my legs and fingers slowly expand as [Limitless Regeneration] takes hold. Bones poked out like the stem of a flower piercing through the dirt, muscles quickly followed and covered the bones before pale skin stretches to coat it all like a jacket.

My legs are healing, yet my clothes are now ruined, huh? My mind wanders to it. [Psychology] says it's a common tactic of the brain to focus on something else after a traumatic incident.

"Scientia, where are we?"

... Is he talking through space?

I quickly got out of his reach and opened my mouth to reply, only for no words to come out.

Feeling really tired of the day, I then decided to use [Technopathy] and opened another Doorway directly in our path.

Veldora's living quarter was still destroyed by that 300-decibel roar, so as I crossed the Doorway I immediately fell down by a dozen meters into a puddle of congregating nanomachines while Veldora hovered in place.

Like a living organism, the Citadel has a self-repairing feature. All the walls, the floors: so long as they aren't furniture or any pieces of tech, they're all made up of tightly packed nanites. This makes damages to the general structure very easy to repair since any scratches can be filled with a spread of a few billion nanites.

As I lay there in the middle of this puddle, with trillions of slivery nanomachines flowing around me reminding me of a small stream, I let out a cough to get Veldora's attention.

"Scientia!" Veldora rushed down over to me, moving fast enough that he blew away all the nearby streams of nanites. The humanoid True Dragon then held me in his hands like how a protagonist would hold their heroine during the latter's final moment.

Extreme grief and stress colored his face, and I could just make out feelings of guilt as well.

That guilt further exploded when he moved to touch my stomach, only for his hands to sink in further than they should have.

Guess my organs are still partially liquid, huh? One of the downsides of the potency of [Limitless Regeneration] is its reduction in speed as compared with Rimuru's [Ultra-Speed Regeneration].

Though, I wonder how fast the last Perfect Homunculus was able to regenerate given how I'm struggling with a single True Dragon.

[Silenced Emotion: 20%]

[Acting] took hold of me, covering my fears in a thick layer of apathy.

"I can save Rimuru, trust me."

Veldora clenched his hands hard, "I'm sorry," he apologized as he avoided eye contact with me.

Even without [Psychology], I could tell Veldora was very ashamed of his act.

I instead felt my eyes twitch at the sight of the once-mighty dragon looking so pathetic.

"If you're sorry then help me get Rimuru back."

"I..." Veldora cleared his throat, "Of course!"

The True Dragon declared dramatically, theatrics guided his every move as he dropped me unceremoniously onto the ground like a sake of potatoes when he stood up and raised his arms high up, "I will slaughter those who stand in our way of getting Rimuru back! I will stop at nothing!"

"...Mrhm."

"..."

The Storm Dragon in human form looked extra awkward as he realized he dropped me on the ground when my legs haven't fully regrown yet. With the speed of a bullet, Veldora snaked his arms behind me and started carrying me again.

Rolling my eyes at his antics, I tried to facepalm only to discover the bones in my forearm haven't fully healed yet, so I only slapped myself.

Because [Extreme Pain Resistance only active in the face of, well, extreme pain, I felt the slap in its entirety.

I don't think it's possible to sigh too much in one day, but apparently, I was proven wrong.

Soldiering on, "Veldora, my legs may be regrowing but it hasn't regrown yet... please be more gentle next time."

"Gap moe...!" Veldora uttered quietly enough that I almost couldn't catch it.

For some odd reason, the Storm Dragon blushed. [Psychology] and [Language] think it's because of how vulnerable I look right now compared to my usual self.

[Acting] helped me continue.

Clearing his throat, Veldora continued, "Of course, Scientia. I acknowledge that I am one of the most powerful beings in the world and will thus take extra care of my anger. My power is great, and my responsibility is greater.

The way Veldora said all that reminded me of a Sage or one of those kung-fu masters in Chinese martial arts films. This made me seriously doubt his words.

"You took that from somewhere didn't you?"

The Storm Dragon took a few steps back, flinching as if he had just been shot and letting out a groan, "Have you no faith in your friend, Scientia?"

I gave him a deadpan look, entirely disregarding [Acting]'s script.

Boy, I would have much more faith had you remained calm, had you not required a timeout in space, gain an Extra Skill in resisting pain, wreck my stuff, and tried to lingchi me!

God damn am I glad the brain is biologically wired to forget memories of physical trauma.

"Anyway, I think it's finally time to introduce you to the public."

Veldora's eyes lit up upon hearing my words. He then struck a pose and started punching the air while cheering.

"It is time, for the glory of the Storm Dragon to make his appearance on the world stage once more! A new age has begun, the Age of Tempest!"

I sighed at Veldora's antics, before focusing on what to do next, and, well, how to exterminate 450,000 people.

_____________________________________________

The next day.

Due to the recent official declaration of war made by the Kingdom of Falmuth, the higher-ups decided it was a good idea to put the final exams of the first batch of junior Officers as field tests in actual warfare. Their passing will depend on how well they do in this war.

Eren left her life as an adventurer for many reasons, the primary one was because of its lack of safety. A close encounter with the Elven Knight Aldous Iztok, better known as 'the Measured Blade', made the elf truly realize how vulnerable she was. Eren, like any sane person, doesn't want to feel vulnerable, so she turns to the most powerful person she knew and joined their military to be stronger.

Right now, Eren Eiwald wore a green uniform that was similar to the Field Marshal's. The elf sat at her desk in the main lecture hall, staring at the scene directly in front of her like all of her other classmates.

There, on her desk, right in front of where she's supposed to sit, rests a sleek black briefcase.

The briefcase wasn't anything too large or too small. If taken out of context, one can easily assume the briefcase carried important files. Since there's a Research and Development sigil of a chemical flask with wings imprinted on top of the briefcase, no one wanted to be the first to open it because of the mysterious reputation R&D has gathered among everyone in Tempest.

Seriously, Research and Development became this source of conspiracy theorists and the prime inspiration for many mystery and horror novels.

Then, General Rubedo came into the room.

"Attention!" The hobgoblin officer-in-training closest to the door yelled out as he stood up and saluted. The rest including Eren followed very quickly afterward.

Discipline is the first thing they drill into you in the Academy.

The General then walked to the center of the blackboard behind the lecture desk. No one moved a muscle from their salute as the highest ranking officer in the room never said 'at ease' yet.

Rubedo's eyes panned across the room, his gaze swept around from left to right like rays of radiance from a light tower.

"At ease," General Rubedo finally said, "You all may now open the briefcase in front of you."

A series of clicks crammed the classroom as everyone opened their briefcase.

"Wha...?"

"A gun?"

"No, it's a pistol..."

Right there, held in the middle of the opened briefcase lies a strange handgun. The handgun was of a simplistic design unlike any of the smuggled handguns from the Eastern Empire. For one, the barrel of the handgun was composed of a single rectangular block. It looked geometrically pleasing and would've looked even more pleasing if the grip and the trigger weren't attached to one corner of the rectangle.

Touching it gently as if it could break with the slightest amount of force, Eren found the pistol to be smooth— so smooth that it was almost slippery. Looming over the pistol, Eren saw her own reflection stare back as if the gun was a mirror. Then, the elf noticed how right above the grip was the phrase: 'Made In Citadel'.

Is that what she thinks it is...?

"Some of you may have noticed the phrase that's imprinted on the pistol. That is proof that the pistol was made by the Commander herself." Gasps of shock came from over half of Eren's classmates. Before anyone could say anything, Rubedo continued, "The pistol that you hold in your hands is a special pistol given only to Officers. It is your diploma, your degree, your certificate of graduation, and the evidence that you have completed your education at this fine institution."

"That pistol you hold in your hands is one that will become your partner throughout your career in the military and beyond. It is a hand-held electromagnetic railgun capable of firing many different types of munitions from simple tungsten rounds all the way to antimatter sabot rounds that is sure to pierce right through a mountain. You will learn to trust that pistol as much as your fellow Officers throughout your career."

Eren picked up the pistol, finding it to be a perfect fit for her hands.

"User: Eren Elward, registered." The gun spoke in a synthesized voice, igniting feelings of fascination within the elf, "Biometrics: registered. Brain wave pattern: registered. Magicule signature: registered."

"The pistol has an AI attached to it. That AI isn't sapient, but it is smart enough to learn your firing behavior and adjust the gun accordingly. After long enough use, your gun will fully customize its firing sequence to you. And I think it goes without saying: I expect you all to pass with flying colors."

Then, the General said one more thing before leaving, "At 1500 hours today, I expect you all to be at the main courtyard. It's time for you all to swear your oath, otherwise, enjoy your free time."

Using that free time, Eren went down to the firing range like so many of her classmates to test out the pistol.

Standing in front of many cases of varying bullets, Eren discovered that the pistol can adjust itself to fit bullets of any size, and can use even chemical propellant. Loading a solid iron round and firing at the lowest setting, the pistol accelerated that round into subsonic speed.

It hit 30 centimeters away from the bullseye.

"Adjusting..."

The pistol spoke again in that synthesized voice. There were metallic clacks coming from the pistol and its internal weight was going all over the place.

"Adjustment completed."

Loading in an iron round once more, Eren fired it and found it hit exactly in the bullseye.

Seeing this prompted one of the orc Officers with his enlarged version of the pistol to use it on the highest setting.

*Boom*

There was a sonic boom as a hypersonic armor-piercing round left the barrel of the gun toward a small chunk of solid metal. The AP round core right through three meters of it before finally stopping.

Everyone was quiet after that, and the orc Officer look down at the pistol in shock.

At the same time, Eren glanced at her own pistol. So much power packed into a container small and light enough she can hold it in her hands, the elf thought, it shocked her honestly.

At 1500 hours, known to civilians as 3 pm, Eren stood in the courtyard of the Academy with 99 of her classmates, in lines of 20 representing each class. The elf stood first in the fourth line from the right.

In front of the lines stood Commander Scientia on top of the stairs leading to the main entrance to the Academy. The Commander's black uniform was crisp, with nothing out of place as she crossed her arms.

"All of you may be wondering why exactly am I putting your exams as an actual field test of your abilities. There's a saying, 'No plan survives contact with the enemy,' and I tend to believe that. I believe to truly be a good Officer, you all will need actual combat experience beyond hyper-realistic simulations. Authenticity, effectively, to truly know the chaos of battle and adjust your plans accordingly."

Scientia's hands then whipped out dramatically to the sides. To Eren, it always surprises her that Scientia had such a flare for theatrics and dramatics to the point that she wouldn't look out of place in a theater play. Expressive movements colored the Commander's body as she continued her speech, acting as the definition of an orator.

"Today, we face a challenge unlike any other in our nation's history. Our enemy is not just a force to be reckoned with, not just an army of unwilling slaves, not just a mindless monster seeking destruction but an autocratic monarchal nation determined to undermine our values and way of life. However, let me be clear: we do not fear them, for we are the most advanced fighting force that the world has ever seen, and we stand united in the defense of our values of liberty, equality, fraternity, and rationality!"

Scientia's cape fluttered.

"As we go to war, let us never forget that we stand as the beacon of liberty in this world of authoritarianism and despotic dictatorships. You, my Officers, stand as the vanguard of democracy, so your mission is clear: to defend our nations, protect the freedoms we hold so dear, spread our values and liberate those oppressed. Go forth then, with courage and determination, knowing that you carry the hopes and dreams of our nation on your shoulders, and never forget that our cause is just and our victory is assured."

Scientia then placed her right hand over her chest.

"And so, the final oath before you go into battle, repeat after me: I solemnly swear."

"""I solemnly swear"""

Everyone mimicked the Commander's posture.

"To devote my soul and ability in the defense of the Jura Tempest Republic,"

"""To devote my soul and ability in the defense of the Jura Tempest Republic,"""

"To defend the Consitution of the Republic,"

"""To defend the Consitution of the Republic,"""

"And to further the rights of all intelligent beings,"

"""And to further the Rights of all intelligent beings,"""

"From the lowest point of the world,"

"""From the lowest point of the world,"""

"To the very edge of existence,"

"""To the very edge of existence,"""

"For as long as I shall live."

"""For as long as I shall live."""

_____________________________________________

The next day, the War room inside the Hexagon

The Hexagon's War Room was a very special place that existed within the Ministry of Defense's main headquarter. The room was the size of a suburban house and was two stories tall, with mainly open spaces and a catwalk flanking three sides of the room.

There were only a small handful of people inside here when it was obvious that it could support more. That's because everyone here has signed the Geas.

The main attraction inside the War Room was the absurdly massive primary screen that covered an entire wall, stretching from end to end that displayed all kinds of information.

If one were to look around, one can say that it almost looks like the set for the bridge of a spaceship in a space opera movie. They wouldn't be wrong as the War Room serves as the nexus point for the entire Tempest military.

Although it was mostly dark, the soft glow from numerous computer monitors lit up the room, enough that one can almost read books with it if they strain their eyes.

At the center of the room is a long holographic table perfect for strategizing the next moves.

"...We should..."

"The enemy is right...

"No, no, we can bomb..."

At least, it would've been had there been less bickering about what to do among the top Officers of the military.

I sat on one end of the table with eight other Officers of the rank Major and above. Since we're such a new nation, a person's rank right now was signified by how well they can direct in a simulated battlefield. The higher ranks are those who did well while the lower is vice versa.

As of right now, Rubedo and Ririna are leading two groups of thinking.

Rubedo advocates for the deployment of one of the Polaris weapons, just slaying the invading army outright and collecting their souls in the aftermath.

Ririna advocates for the deployment of chemical weapons, specifically, bombs containing knock-out gas so that the soldiers can be collected and placed inside camps where their souls can be extracted by me.

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to go with either of them. Mainly the second one.

The worse connotation for camps in this World is the work camps of the Eastern Empire, where dissenters are sent and worked to death.

"Enough," The moment I spoke, both of them went quiet, "I think this is the perfect time to show one of the cards I held closest to my chest. He should annihilate the 50,000-man army. As for Falmuth itself, we'll occupy all the main cities simultaneously by teleporting our army into each of their cities. Their lack of any anti-teleportation field covering the whole place will be their downfall."

The Doormaker is a game changer even greater than planes. The ability to simply teleport in stuff has made mobility and supply lines a non-issue.

Just look at Napoleon, he's famous for his speed and he almost conquered Europe.

With Doormaker, I can just teleport my armies to wherever I need them to be before teleporting them out: the ultimate hit-and-run basically.

"What card is this, Commander?" Ririna asked.

Instead of a verbal reply, I pointed at the huge screen that takes up one side of the entire room. Using [Technopathy], I changed the channel to display something else.

It was a live video feed from a high-altitude recon drone.

Ririna squinted her eyes before telling an AI to enlarge the image. Pretty soon, the live video feed focused on a single dot floating above the marching army of Falmuth.

"Zoom in more."

At maximum zoom, the camera captured a blond-haired man with tanned skin wearing a flowing black cape, acting confidently like some kind of supervillain right before a battle.

"Who is that?"

"That, my dear Field Marshal..." I trailed off, an aura erupted from Veldora can be felt halfway across the continent. The clouds covered the once sunny blue skies that the lines of Falmuth's army were marching under, lightning flashes as the rain started to pour, mere drizzles right now but were worsening rapidly.

_____________________________________________

After Action Report: Termination of the invading Falmuth Army.

The following are excerpts of the timeline section belonging to the after-action report complied by Commander Scientia Tempest involving the termination of Designated: Envelope.

The following are deemed: [For Public Distribution and Official Use Only]

-Designated: Envelope was first sighted via satellite two days prior at [REDACTED]

-The Grand Military of the Republic who was already mobilized following the Sea of Glass Incident turned their focus upon the drones.

-At 10:59:43, Operation Est fully commenced with the deployment of Class-40 Magicule Singularity 'Veldora'.

-Immediately upon commencing, Veldora unleashed his aura and caused severe anomalies within the local weather pattern. No conscious efforts appear to have been used. Immediate manifestations of weather anomalies include but are not limited to:

> Heavy rain: recorded rainfall of at least 50 centimeters.

> Lightning.

> Thunder.

> Heavy cloud covering.

> Winds estimated to be at least 50 km/h.

_____________________________________________

"That aura!"

"It can't be!"

"But he was gone..."

'Are you recording this, Scientia?'

Veldora asked me through the [Soul Corridor].

'No, not yet.'

I sent a reply.

The live video feed changed as the drone dived to get a better look. In the span of ten minutes, the drone dove underneath the rain clouds and saw how it was down pouring buckets. The sun retreated underneath the might of the Storm Dragon, thunders cracked and lightning flashed.

'Yes, you may be as dramatic as you want now. Channel all your acting and forge this one great act.'

The moment I finished, Veldora's two arms rose up and formed a V-shape.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Veldora boomed, loud enough that the drone was able to record it, "I have returned! The Storm Dragon Veldora has finally returned after being sealed for 300 years!"

Lightning danced across Veldora's fingers as he struck a pose that reminds me of an overconfident Dark Lord on the eve of his victory. The Wind really started to pick up.

_____________________________________________

-At 11:01:01, Veldora displayed the following abilities:

> ability to create electricity across his skin. Possibly static electricity in nature.

_____________________________________________

"And it was all thanks to Rimuru and Scientia Tempest!"

I facepalmed so hard that moment it caught the attention of everyone in the room as they turned to face me.

Embarrassment burned on my face as I felt the hot under my clothes, 'VELDORA YOU DUMBASS! You were supposed to say after you felt the near destruction of Metropolis, you awaken to defend your territory!'

The confidence inside Veldora vaporized before he cleared his throat, "Uh, I mean, it was due to the attack on Metropolis that awakened me from my deep slumber! And so, I shall take revenge by slaughtering you all!"

_____________________________________________

-At 11:02:00, Veldora displayed the following abilities:

> ability to summon multiple tornadoes

_____________________________________________

The clouds descended in the shape of vortexes in what's known as a 'funnel cloud'. Multiple of these funnel clouds descending created an apocalyptic image as it almost looked like drills of gods coming down to dig out mankind.

These funnel clouds churned the air, picking up anything lighter than a human and tossing them around. Falmuth's army scattered like particles of sand, trying to escape.

Then, those funnel clouds touched the ground and created tornadoes.

Dozens upon dozens of tornadoes surrounded Falmuth's army, preventing escape as anyone who tries to leave will get picked up by a tornado and then be shredded. Falmuth's army was trapped in a cage.

As if to add to the massacre, lightning strikes came out of those tornadoes numerous enough that it was like bullets from an automated sentry turret, each strike killing a dozen soldiers.

Veldora then swung his right arm, and half a dozen blades of wind each larger than school buses sliced through the air, scything through a hundred men like ears of wheat for the harvester and even more trees before dissipating after they dug deep ravines.

It was the definition of a butchery.

<Alert, due to the influx of souls forcefully given to you from the [Soul Corridor] with the individual known as Veldora Tempest, you have gained the Extra Skill: [Soul Extraction]>

'What does that do?'

Having a connection with a personal completed Matrioshka Brain should speed up the analysis by... Oh, I don't know, a few hundred trillion? Quadrillion? Quintillion? Somewhere in that ballpark.

<Analysis complete, [Soul Extraction] allows for the user to extract the souls of those that their creations kill, the creation in question must be soulless in order for this to work. It also allows the transfer of Souls through [Soul Corridor]>

'That's useful for later, now how many souls do I have? The AI counted 5,999 deaths from the live video feed. Though the shaking due to turbulence probably caused the count to be less.'

<Notice: you have gained 17,744 souls from the [Soul Corridor] with the individual known as Veldora Tempest>

A small portal to my pocket dimension formed behind me. From that portal, additional nanites came out coated in a very thin layer of magmatter.

If I wore this instead of that casual nanosuit, I don't think Veldora could've done much against me.

"It is time for me to take to the field," I declared to the room, Ririna turned away from the screen to try and interject before I held up a hand, "I need to test something as well."

With that, I left through a Doorway constructed on the spot by Doormaker.

Unlike the darkness and artificial light from before, I stepped into a place where the sky was the bluest it has ever been, and white puffy clouds served as icings on a blue cake. Underneath me, breaking apart the greenery, was a large city with two pairs of walls, one outer one to separate the wilderness from the city and an inner one to separate the upper and lower classes.

<Notice: you have gained 25,399 souls from the [Soul Corridor] with the individual known as Veldora Tempest>

The name of this city was Corbin. According to the latest census data provided by Blumund's secret intelligence, it had around 400,000 permanent residents give or take.

<Notice: you have gained 42,129 souls from the [Soul Corridor] with the individual known as Veldora Tempest>

'That was a huge jump, what happened?'

<Three of the tornados made by the individual known as Veldora Tempest have finished shredding those that attempted to escape>

'...' I fell in silence, that description sounded too close to what Arcueid did to those knights.

<Notice: you have gained 46,086 souls from the [Soul Corridor] with the individual known as Veldora Tempest>

I'm really about to condemn these innocents to death, aren't I? In the name of fewer overall deaths.

<Notice: you have gained 50,030 souls from the [Soul Corridor] with the individual known as Veldora Tempest>

And it is done. The deed has been done.

(AN: Play Mozart - Lacrimosa)

[Silenced Emotion: 70%]

I guess it's my turn to contribute, isn't it? It's finally time to stain my hand with blood.

In retrospect, 450,000 is tiny in the grand scheme of things, my mind started to justify things. In the future, when there are trillions of people, the death of a few thousand will probably be treated in the same way as the death of one.

"Ha." I let out a little laugh. A part of me was confused at why I'm laughing before a tragedy greater than even the two atomic bombs while the rest just wanted to laugh, to laugh at the fact that I'm about to become a mass murderer on par with the worst that those in my old World had to offer to save someone.

But at the same time, compared to them, Mao Zedong and Genghis Khan were estimated to have killed a collective 80 million people, and if you add Stalin to that list, you can get about 100 million. I'm nowhere near the top.

But what I will be at the top of is how many I've personally killed. The two atomic bombs together only killed around 280,000 people while I'm going to kill 400,000.

I looked up at the pretty blue sky, my mind lost and my eyes solely focused on the prettiness.

No blood should be spilled on a day like this. It's too pretty.

"The things we do for love..." This feels like the origin of a supervillain. The death of a loved one prompting a genius to go to great lengths to get them back, only there's no superhero to oppose me, no Superman to stop Lex Luthor— I even have the super technology down!

What a joke.

"Ha...ha, ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, haaaaaaa...." I felt tears at the edge of my eyes. Just three words, just three words that would cost me less than a single calorie to speak if I were still a human is enough to condemn close to half a million people to the gallows, nearly half a million innocent souls.

What a fucking joke.

I grip my head using my own two hands, I continue to just float there, gravity being an ignored suggestion and all the while laughing hysterically.

I am selfish. To sacrifice so many for one, what else could I be called other than selfish?

Is this what President Truman felt like when he ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb? When he took full responsibility?

Is this what the Death Star Operators felt when Tarkin gave the order to fire?

Is this what Paul W. Tibbets, Jr felt like when he pressed the button that ushered in the Atomic Age?

Is this...

[Silenced Emotion: 99%]

... What being a monster feels like?

"Activate Project Behemoth"

Alea Iacta Est, the die is cast and there is no going back.