The Day Of Revival 2

-'...I see...' Diablo eventually said 'To think...you are even greater than my meager imagination could fathom!' he said with reverence; Rimuru looked at him confused through his fingers 'Wining over even the heart of the Destroyer herself! Your greatness must know no limits!' and dropped to one knee again. Rimuru wanted to smash his head hard against the tree and cry.

-'Ah, screw it...' he said finally, leaning against the tree 'yes, yes, me and Milim are...together. And frankly, she's my biggest worry right now.' he told the demon who was now listening intently 'I wanted to just fly off and find her right then and there when I found out what she did, but...' he looked away into the distance 'I still can't...and it's driving me nuts!' he said as he grappled his head in frustration

-'Then, my Lord...may I offer you my full, unwavering help?' Diablo said with much more seriousness than before 'Perhaps if you entrust one of the other issues to me, you may focus on your attention on dealing with your beloved?' he said. Rimuru blushed at his description, but he had to agree it sounded like a good idea; at the moment, Diablo was probably his most powerful follower. The question was if he could be trusted to handle anything with care...

-'Well, I guess I could entrust Falmuth to you. But that leaves the other issues, like the Western Holy Church...' however, he did not need concern himself with that

Notice: the matter of the Church is of no concern now. Raphael informed. Sensing his confusion, she continued Thanks to the evolution of Great Sage to Raphael, my computational power has increased by several orders of magnitude. Report: analysis of 'Unlimited Imprisonment' is completed; it is now possible to release individual Veldora Tempest.

'Say...again?' he though; Raphael helpfully reiterated what she had previously stated. After a few moments, he mentally cackled to himself. 'HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! I see...it's been a long time, Veldora. I though this would take even longer, but Raphael evolving really sped things up!' he though with delight 'Yes, this will do nicely!'

-'Diablo!' the demon immediately stepped to attention 'I have something important to do; I will be heading into Veldora's former cave, and I want you to stay guard outside. I'm counting on you!' he told to the delighted demon 'No one must, for any reason, enter after me until I return.' he ordered

-'Yes, my Lord! It shall be done!' Diablo answered.

-'Before that...Soei...' the ogre immediately appeared out of thin air, kneeling. Before Rimuru could say anything though

-'I will investigate Demon Lord Clayman at once.' he said, then vanished again.

'What scary subordinates I have...' Rimuru though to himself

Some time later, he arrived in the depths of Veldora's Cave, near the lake where he had met the dragon. He had left Ranga behind and checked to see if anyone was still inside. Fortunately, everyone was out in town, even Vesta, and so he was alone and able to conduct one of his long term goals freely.

'Alright Raphael, how do we handle this?' he asked his skill

Report: you should create a clone for the spirit of Veldora to inhabit once Unlimited Imprisonment is broken. Raphale told him; he obliged, creating a blank copy of himself, noting with some mild excitement that he had grown a bit taller (not by much though). A second later, he gave Raphael the order to break the Imprisonment. With a surge of power many times greater than his own- a surge that could be felt all the way in the city, and beyond, he imagined- Veldora emerged from his cage. The great dragon's spirit immediately formed a link with the clone, taking it as a medium and...began changing it. Before his eyes, the rather feminine copy of himself morphed into an obscenely manly, muscle bound, dark skinned, blond haired man...wearing only black pants and a black cape.

-'He he..Kwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! I AM RESTORED!' Veldora billowed with a booming voice 'I will slaughter all in my path!' he declared with a pose

-...'How about you don't?' Rimuru deadpanned, though he still had to smile at his friend's revival. Hearing Rimuru, Veldora turned to look at him and immediately beamed into a wide grin, then grabbed him over the shoulder 'Ha ha, Rimuru! Thanks a bunch, pal! Kwa ha ha!' he laughed as he patted him on the back

-'Yeah, it's nice to see you too.' Rimuru said as he slipped out of his grasp 'Heh, a lot of things happened. I became kind of king, traveled the world a bit, and now I even became a Demon Lord!' he announced with pride 'All my skills have greatly evolved too...'

-'Ah, yes...' Veldora said, looking impressed. But then, he got an annoyed look 'YOU IDIOT!'

-'Huuuh?!' Rimuru stepped back as the dragon screamed at him 'What'd I do?!'

-'Don't 'huuuh' me!' Veldora screamed 'The only reason you're still alive, after all the reckless naming you did, is because you STOLE the necessary magicules from ME!' he informed him. That's when Rimuru truly understood...just how stupid and reckless he had been over the last two years.

-'Oh...'

-'...well, to late now. In any case, by some roundabout means it did allow you to break me free faster than expected...' Veldora declared, looking away; Rimuru seriously hopped he wasn't pouting 'though I did fear it would take forever, since losing magicules from naming slowed down the calculations considerably.'

-'Right. Sorry.' Rimuru said 'Will you forgive me if I, say...present a present of, say, cream puffs?' Rimuru said. Veldora quickly perked up at that, then had a sudden realization

-'Ah, presents!' he said, suddenly looking contemplative 'Ah ha! It seems I, too, received a gift from your ascension to Demon Lord! My investigator has evolved into the Ultimate Skill, Investigation King Faust! This is the power to reach the ultimate truth that my insatiably inquisitive mind desired! Kwa ha ha ha ha!'

-'...good for you.' Rimuru deadpanned. 'Anyways, back to more serious busyness, could you reign in your aura? It's probably wrecking havoc on my town...'

Veldora stopped laughing and sheepishly smiled 'Ah, yes, of course. How about...this!' he looked like he was flexing, but somehow it also worked; his aura war absorbed back into his body, becoming almost unnoticeable. With that solved, Veldora looked at Rimuru prideful 'See?' he asked as if begging for praise.

-'...You can do better.' Rimuru told him, ignoring his grin 'In any case, we have a lot to talk about...'

-'Yes, we do.' Veldora said in an accusatory tone, then pointed at him 'Like how you went and got a freaking girlfriend!' he shouted. Rimuru flinched and blushed. 'Not this...' he though. Then he realized...Veldora must have seen his memories to know that...which meant, he saw all the more...private moments he and Milim shared. With that though, Rimuru once again felt his face heat up to temperatures humans could not endure; thank his luck that he was not human anymore, because he was sure he would die of embarrassment otherwise. Actually, dying seemed like a preferable thing right at that moment. Thinking fast and avoiding eye contact, he said

-'Ah, he he...it's not that big a deal...' he tried to dismiss it, but Veldora would have none of it

-'No big deal my BUTT!' he shouted at Rimuru, getting right up in his face 'Two years, and you not only became a Demon Lord, you WOOED the strongest of them! Seriously!' Rimuru tried very hard to keep some semblance of calm, but what came next shattered his word 'And even worse for me, this Demon Lord is none other than my niece, too!' Veldora said, clutching his head.

-'...What did you SAY?!' Rimuru immediately shouted. He prayed to every possible god he misheard. No such luck. Veldora turned to him with an awkward smile and said

-'Ah, right. See, Milim Nava... is the only child of my older brother!' he said, almost casually. Rimuru's mind exploded. He could feel himself fainting and Raphael trying to say something, but his mind chose to simply shut down for a little while.

Some time later, after some prodding and poking by Veldora, Rimuru snapped back to reality. With a sigh, he turned to Veldora 'Your...older brother's...child?' he asked through gritted teeth and a fake smile

-'Yup!' Veldora said with a grin, ignorant of Rimuru's pain 'My older brother, the oldest of the four True Dragons; the Stellar Dragon King Veldanava! He was that dragon in the story your elf friend told ya...' he said.

-'...I see.' Rimuru said as he lowered himself to the ground, sighing; sitting crossed legged, he looked up at Veldora and asked 'Is this going to...be an issue?'

The dragon looked at him, contemplating. Then, he simply said 'Probably not.'

-'Then why did you sound like you were angry about it?!' Rimuru shouted; Veldora sheepishly scratched the back of his head and looked away

-'He he, well, I just...her dad (and my sisters) explicitly told me to stay the heck away from her, you see...they said I'd be a 'bad influence' on her... or something...' he grumbled, emphasizing 'bad influence' with some disgust. Rimuru had no sympathy. Actually...

-'Crap...' he said in realization '...being related to you explains so much about her...' he said. Veldora looked down, offended, but Rimuru ignored him and continued 'Like how obscenely powerful she is...' he looked Veldora up and down '...or her choice of clothing...'

-'Very funny.' Veldora said, then he too sat down crossed legged across from him 'Well, anyways, I guess I'm just kinda shocked. I never met her before; she's not...what I expected.' as Rimuru looked at him in curiosity, he continued 'I heard she was kinda of a brat that just destroyed everything in her path...but, she wasn't. She seemed...lonely...' he said, lowering his head in what Rimuru though was shame, but it was quickly replaced by a playful grin 'Whatever! I wish you guys the best! BUT!' he said as he pointed a fist at Rimuru 'Don't go forgetting about your first friend in this world, yeah?'

At that, Rimuru had to offer a smile. Though Veldora seemed offended and angry, he was, in fact, quite a good friend to have, even if he had been so for a very brief time. Taking his own fist, he bumped Veldora's 'As if I could forget.'

The issue of Milim aside, the two spent some hours talking about about various things, most of which was meaningless dribble that Veldora thought up; apparently, the dragon had passed the time inside his storage space by...reading his memories. Specifically, all the manga Rimuru had read in his previous life. And now, he became somewhat of a manga geek and spent several hours gushing over all the new moves and powers he though to copy from the manga. Rimuru wasn't sure if he should be concerned, amused or just not care; however, at least it did gave Veldora the idea to better control his power, especially his aura, which he was getting much better at; he also said something about not being overshadowed in control by his own niece.

Incidentally, Rimuru spent that time looking over his new skills and powers to get a better grip of what he had at his disposal. Aside from Great Sage evolving into Raphael, his Gluttony also evolved into the Ultimate Skill Gluttony King Beelzebub; he wasn't sure how he felt about a skill named after a demon, but whatever. Some other skills were gone, like Degenerate or Merciless, but were replaced by even crazier skills like Ultimate Skill, Covenant King Uriel; also, breaking Veldora out allowed a new skill, Storm King Veldora, to form. Somehow, he ended up having four ultimate skills all at once, which he wasn't sure was supposed to feel as easy as it did...Raphael, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed by it, though.

-'Finished assessing your abilities, Rimuru?' Veldora asked finally

-'Yeah, all done...' He said as he got up from where he was sitting. 'And you seem to be getting a hang of controlling your aura.'

-'Kwa ha ha ha ha ha! Of course! This much is nothing for me!' he laughed. Rimuru shook his head 'So...' Veldora said once he calmed down 'Do you have a plan going forward?'

-'Actually...I sort of do.' Rimuru said, motioning for him to follow; they began walking towards the cave's entrance 'I got some ideas, at least, that I want to run by my subordinates...'