450: Interlude – That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Draconic Slime
Chapter 450: Interlude – That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Draconic Slime
—
It was a dark cave. If not for the magic stones that were spread across the walls, lighting up the area just a little, everything would have been darker than the night.
The gentle sound of water droplets falling on stone could be heard, but that was just a background tune. The main form of sound in this cave came from the conversation between two strange creatures, a small blue slime, and a massive blue dragon.
"Mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah! Do you want to eat the barrier? Fascinating! Please, go ahead. I leave myself at your mercy!"
"You're that ready to believe me?"
The dragon let out a laugh, shaking the cave to its core. It felt that if he laughed a bit louder, the cave might collapse. The slime couldn't possibly comprehend the level of power this dragon possessed, that's why it was so casual around the dragon.
At the slime's inquiry, the dragon nodded. "But of course! It would be far more fun to break through this prison with you than sit around and await your return! If the two of us work together, this Unlimited Imprisonment could fall quicker than we thought! But how?"
"...All right. So I'm gonna consume you, all right? Hurry up and get outta there."
The dragon laughed. "Right away. You shall make me wait no longer. Let us finally join together!"
"Right!" The slime summoned up all of its stores of resolve, touching the dragon for a moment, then activated its skill, Predation.
In a moment, the Dragon's massive form disappeared from sight.
It happened almost too fast. They were talking just a moment ago. The dragon and the "Unlimited Imprisonment" itself were sucked in at once.
…Unbeknownst to these two beings, this just filled the quota for something. On a scale big enough that these two beings had no idea about.
Just as the dragon was absorbed by the slime, the worldline paused in time. The body of the slime, Rimuru Tempest, let out a strange light as it began to transform.
The wobbly ball morphed as the figure of a woman began to form, with a bust just right in all parts as she was hugging her knees. Her blue slime skin began to take the shade of a human's, and two dragon wings popped up from her back and a blue tail from behind. Her hair too was blue, though more in the shade of periwinkle.
The figure sat on the floor, hugging her legs with her eyes closed. The grayed-out world regained its color as time moved once more.
"...Huh?"
Just as time resumed, the woman opened her eyes and blinked at her surroundings.
"What the…"
She got up and frowned at all the strange memories in her head. There were three different memories in her head… one of a Great Dragon, another of a Japanese man from a black company, and the last one of a… little hero girl from Japan.
[Ding! Oddity Detected.]
[Interference Detected.]
[Ding! Great Sage is interfering with your existence. As Satoru Mikami was the one who received the Great Sage, it is only fair if only his soul remained – though all the memories will remain.]
[!!!???...¿¿¿¡¡¡]
[...Error. Unable to Proceed.]
["The Will of the Omniverse" is intruding with the Great Sage's decision. A piece of vital information has been provided by the Omniverse's Will. The decision has been overwritten, due to a Title you possess. Only Nejire Hado's soul shall remain.]
[Decision Accepted.]
[The skill "Predator" has resonated with "Mine" and evolved into Gluttony. The skill has been forcefully used. Satoru Mikami and Storm Dragon Veldora's existence have been devoured and assimilated.]
[Welcome, Nejire Hado.]
"What the-"
Nejire Hado blinked at the status screen in front of her eyes and took a step back instinctively.
"What the hell is going on?"
* * *
[There were no problems with these three existence's synchronization due to the many similarities they possess. Since you are a Blue Dragon like Veldora Tempest, and also have many similar abilities to Rimuru Tempest; such as your Quirk "Mine" that is similar to Rimuru's "Predator". That is why you have successfully overwritten the existence of those two. In the future, if you were to meet people who used to know Veldora or Rimuru, they would recognize it as either of those two.]
Nejire covered her naked breasts with her arms as she walked out of the cave while staring at the System Message. The ruined remnant of the cave's entrance lay behind her.
It was Neji who used his Quirk [Copy] to give her many of his Quirks, including [Mine]. She was the only girl who was capable of getting them safely since the many quirks didn't harm her body as much, due to the similarities between her and his genes. She was also a Blue Dragon since he evolved her using that weird magic stone. So she supposed her existence indeed did match with these two…
"It's not like I don't understand what's going on, but…"
Wasn't this too convenient? And odd, too.
She knew "Reincarnated As a Slime" anime. In the session where Neji made the five of them watch anime for some reason, this was included. So she knew who Rimuru was and who Veldora was.
It just didn't make sense that after Rimuru absorbed Veldora, thus completing the set of tags such as "Devourer" and "Dragon", somehow Nejire was summoned. Did the same happen with the other four girls?
"It doesn't make sense… Probably that Omniverse's Will or whatever pulled me here, and it just needed a usable excuse to put me in this body. For some reason."
She looked down at her hand. Her hand looked human, but… as she focused, her fleshy hand turned into blue slime.
Even if she was shaped like a woman and a dragon in her true form, she was a slime now.
So weird.
Though she wasn't unhappy about this. The only reason her thoughts were grumpy was because of what that brat Neji did. Did he really not trust her to be powerful and be able to take care of herself?
"Bastard."
Other than that, she was incredibly happy at this moment.
Just by merging with these two beings, Veldora for the most part, Nejire felt like she was hundreds of times stronger than what she was in the Hero Academia world.
If she wished, she could erase Japan a few times over with a single dragon's breath.
No… maybe even the planet.
"Or the entire solar system. If all these memories of Veldora aren't wrong. This is Crazy."
Okay, fine. Maybe Neji's plan wasn't that bad. Did he think of all this though or was it just a coincidence? He should have told them if he planned to send them to other worlds where they'll receive instant power boosts.
Still…
"Bastard. I'll kill him if he dies at those Gods' hands… Hah."
She stopped walking and looked up at the sky. It was nighttime, a trillion stars were looking at her.
"...I hope he survives."
If it was her now, she could kill Neji a million times. In that case, what if those Gods were as strong as her? Wouldn't they just… kill him with ease?
She quickly shook her head. "He will be fine. Still, I should probably find a way to travel back to him. Rimuru Tempest would have begun a village and stuff about now, but I can't waste my time with that."
Nejire grabbed a tree branch nearby and broke it. She stabbed it into her body and it got absorbed by the slime. Suddenly, she found herself with the ability to morph into wood and sprout leaves – notified by a bunch of system windows. She looked down at her chest and imagined a makeshift bra made out of leaves around her bosom. Her slime skin morphed into that, same with a leaf skirt around her waist.
"I should get some proper clothes though. Let's go find a human civilization first. I did watch the anime but it didn't cover all of the Light Novel content. I need to do my own research and learn about the magic that allows dimension travel."
She said as she leaped into the air. Her dark blue wings flapped and carried her through the air at the speed of sound.
* * *
A few days passed after that. Nejire had a hard time getting inside any country since she exuded such pressure that made people see her as a threat.
She tried to withdraw the pressure, but it was of no use.
"Oookay… this isn't good." She sighed as she sat on the edge of a cliff, looking down at the capital city of a kingdom below. It had Chinese themes. "I need to get in there and get inside some kind of magical library. I want to research magic, but…"
Veldora was a Storm Dragon. But he was born as the incarnation of chaos, having control of wind, water, and space. So while Storm was his main attribute, he had good knowledge about Space Magic too.
So she really didn't need to find a magic library. In the last couple of days, she went through the dragon's memories in search of information about dimensional travel.
She didn't find any. Sure, there were basic teleportation spells, but that wasn't what she was looking for.
But this meant something. If Veldora, who was a True Dragon with Space affinity, didn't have the means to travel dimensions, there was no way that these humans would have anything to help her.
"In that case… I need to make deals with the Demon Kings. Or maybe go talk to Veldora's siblings."
Except his siblings hated him. And while the System Window thing from before said she had replaced Veldora's existence, she wasn't sure if those dragons would notice that she was a completely different person.
"Dammit…"
She felt pissed. What should she do? It's already been a few days too. Neji's battle with the Gods probably ended by now, if time moved the same across worlds.
No, at this point, since the fight might have ended anyway, she should assume he won—or at least managed to escape—and so she should do something productive.
If she couldn't find a way to travel back to him, at least for now, she should spend the time to grow stronger instead.
Veldora was strong, but he was never the strongest. And he had enemies. The best choice now was to find a way to conceal this deadly aura. She probably should be able to do it herself, without the help of any artifact, if she spent some time trying to control it.
In fact, she has been trying to do it now, as she sat here. Just that it wasn't showing any effect-
[Ding. You have learned the skill, "Presence Concealment".]
"Ah…." Nejire blinked and felt the aura around her retract. "Ahh! Good. Now I can finally get into a human settlement."
But should she?
There was nothing useful there that she could find. Though a part of her wanted to go meet the humans, since the humanity in her world has been… destroyed, another part of her didn't want to do that. She had to grow stronger, and staying with the humans wouldn't help her with that.
"Well… at least I should go eat something. I am not really hungry, but I miss food." She said and got up. Before she could take a step forward though, a hand fell on her shoulder from behind.
Nejire turned around hurriedly, startled that someone had snuck up on her. Was there someone that strong in this area?
As she looked in front of her, she realized that yes, there was.
[Great Sage has used True Dragon's innate skill, Universe Sense.]
With the help of this sensing skill, she grasped a good understanding of the power level this person possessed. And she recognized her too, it was Veldora's older sister.
Velgrynd, the Scorch Dragon. She glared at Nejire. "When did you escape? No, what are you doing here, lurking near the Eastern Empire?"
'Wow, she doesn't sound very happy seeing her sibling after 300 years of imprisonment. Then again, she's the same sister who feels like she should discipline Veldora by literally killing him.' Now Nejire at least knew that people would recognize her as Veldora.
She shrugged, "I escaped a while ago. What are you doing here, guarding a human nation while wearing human clothes?"
"Are you asking me questions right now, brat?" the woman yanked Nejire by her ear and she grumbled at that. Who the fuck did she think she was? Nejire had always been the older sibling between her and Neji, so this was a new and frustrating feeling.
Still, she had no choice but to play along. "Anyway, get out of here. I am busy otherwise I'd have beaten you up. Don't cause too much trouble, or you might get sealed off again by some lunatic hero."
"Yeah, yeah, thanks…" Neji rubbed her ear as it was let free and quickly turned around, taking the air and blasting off from this area.
….
Later in the sky, as she floated as if she was swimming on her back, Neji hummed.
"Hmm. Jura Forest route it is. I'll go back and follow the plot to do what Rimuru did. At least until a certain point. For example, that Orc monster. I needed to Devour it and take the skill that allowed it to grow stronger the more followers it had. That sounds like a nice Skill to have."
On that note, she got distracted for a moment.
'Skill, huh.' She sometimes heard Neji talking to himself about skills like this and that. Did he possibly have one of these system things…?
"Hmm," she rubbed her chin. "...Before I leave. Let's see, Status Window?"
It didn't exist for Rimuru in the anime, but maybe it's different for her.
Something appeared in front of her.
===
Name: Nejire Hado
Age: 18 [2500+]
Race: Draconic Slime
Tier: Low Class 10
Title: The Gamer's Sister
HP: 9900000/9900000
MP: 1100000/1100000
Skills: [Click to Expand]
===
"...."
She knew what a Tier was. Neji told her and the other girls to give them a better idea about their growth and power level. But she didn't know what Class 10 meant.
"Must be a different kind of measurement. What's that title though…" Was that the title that the Great Sage mentioned when she first appeared in this world?
She clicked it, and it expanded. Nejire blinked at the explanation.
===
Title: The Gamer's Sister
The Gamer System is the Greatest of All Systems, and it currently hosts Neji Hado. As his sister who happened to end up with a System of her own, Great Sage, you have been crowned with this title. This allows you a few powers of The Gamer. Such as a limited Gamer's [Body] and [Mind], along with the [Title] feature.
This is also the reason why you are able to see a Status Window, instead of just having a voice in your head.
You can also join in a party with The Gamer if he allows you.
===
"So I was right," Nejire frowned. "Looks like he was hiding many things from me."
Hah.
"..."
Sighing, she got up in the air.
It didn't matter. She just had to grow stronger until she could find a way to travel out of this world. Or until he will come here to find her himself. Then she'll beat him up for not telling her what he really was.
* * *
* * *
* * *
"Kill her!"
"How dare a mere slime-!"
How long has passed since that?
'Should be a few months, I think…'
Nejire raised a hand at the incoming army of orcs. A wave of darkness spiraled out of her palm and devoured the fools, there was zero resistance.
She felt pleased as System Prompts let her know about the new skills she gained from the fools. She had been growing stronger steadily since that day.
Her Goblin Army watched in awe from a distance as she rampaged around the area. She wasn't even using 10% of her powers, or maybe even less than that. She actually didn't know how strong she was, since she had never gone all out. Though she knew in her full Dragon Form she could trample over a Kingdom with ease, thanks to Veldora's memories.
The fight with the orc army ended in no time. As she had planned, she devoured the Orc Disaster and got its skill.
[You have received the skill "Starved".
It allows the user to bestow the effects of the Skill upon her subordinates which allows them to eat anything and everything in sight in exchange for a constant feeling of starvation. The ones under the Skill's effects develop a sense of collectivism that also enables those under its effects to share their gains and improvements remotely, similar to the link of the Direwolves. Although they cannot obtain all the abilities of those they eat, they can still acquire some of their special features.
This ability also allows the user to devour himself and others to enhance the Skill "Self-Regeneration."
The strength of the users rises the hungrier they are. It also increases when the user eats a being with high energy levels or power.]
[Two of your skills, Starved and Gluttony, have found synergy. They have merged.]
[A new Skill, Beelzebuth, has been gained.]
It felt great to power up like this. It was so easy. She saw no change in her "Tier" though, even after gaining so many abilities.
At this rate, she believed she'd be strong enough to travel universes in no time.
"Hmm, with Beelzebuth, I should be able to view the memories of people I absorb clearly. I should devour some Mages then, Space Mages to be accurate." She knew tricks about Space Magic, but she wasn't the best at it. She could always improve.
Also, perhaps it was because of the shared [Gamer's Mind] skill, weakened or not, she didn't feel that bad killing intelligent beings. It just felt… fair if it worked toward her cause.
* * *
* * *
* * *
A few years passed like that, three to be specific. Many things happened to Nejire; she went through everything Rimuru had gone through in the anime, and even more. Honestly, she was kind of attached to this world—obviously not enough to diverge her from her goal of returning to her brother, but still this was like a second home to her.
She had an Empire under her, and she had close loyal guards. Many people pursued her romantically, something that she naturally avoided since she had Neji. Honestly, life here was much better than the one she left in the Hero Academia world, she was a God Queen here, after all.
But still, she wanted to return as soon as possible. But there was not really any improvement in that research. These days she's learning to take breaks and enjoy herself amidst all the action. Just today, she went to the beach to relax under the sun, play volleyball and swim around.
[Image Here]
Currently, she was back in her mansion, in her massive royal bath, submerged in water to wash off the salt water. After spending some time submerged, she got up as her servant began to dry her body with a towel.
"I am looking forward to meeting him," said Shion, the purple-haired Battle Goddess who was helping her dry off. "Mhm, I now understand why you never take romantic approaches kindly. I'll make sure people in the future understand that you're not interested in them."
"No need to get violent," Nejire laughed with her favorite assistant. Shion knew about her more than anyone else in this world, and now she told her about Neji too. Nejire could relax when around this woman since she was always so responsible and took care of all the jobs that Nejire couldn't be bothered to do.
Drying her body wasn't one of them though, she could just shake the water off, but it was fine to relax once in a while. It didn't feel like a waste of time to gossip with Shion. She was a close friend, along with a subordinate.
"All right, all done-"
Shion started, but she could never finish.
A beam of red and black energy swept through the air and blasted through Shion's head. Nejire perceived the attack, but she couldn't dodge it. Shion's body fell to the floor, her head gone as it was just a bloody mess, Nejire froze.
Only [Gamer's Mind] helped her stay sane. She quickly equipped herself with armor from her spatial storage, her stomach, and turned toward the beam's origin with clenched jaws.
"Come out."
Breaking the walls, a figure of a man in red walked out. His long red hair fluttered as he smirked at her with a casual smile.
Nejire frowned. "Guy Crimson? Why?"
"I have news that you're Ivaraj?" he asked casually. "You know, the True Dragon from another world? Your own student, Chloe Aubert, provided the news and provided enough information to confirm. Let's have a rematch."
"What?"
Nejire received no further information as the Lord of Darkness rushed at her with killing intent.
* * *
Nejire never read the Light Novel, but she remembered Kimi, the lifeless weebo who knew everything, telling her that Rimuru was only four years old at the end of the Light Novel. Meaning, he became the strongest in the universe in just four years. Stronger than even the creator of the world, Veldanava.
So, why was Nejire not anywhere close to that even though it's been double that?
It's been 8 years since Nejire came to this world, and there was a little trouble she faced. Maybe more than a little. It was a situation that Rimuru didn't have to face.
Chloe Aubert, the variable. The Time Traveler who loved Rimuru Tempest — the real one. She was a canon character whom Nejire knew of, but she still wasn't expecting such a scenario.
The Tensura story that aired in the anime was not the main timeline. It was the second timeline. In the main/first timeline, Shion didn't die and Rimuru didn't become a True Demon Lord so the aftermath of that was that he died when the Eastern Empire invaded. After knowing Rimuru's death, Chloe who was in love with Rimuru traveled back in time and tried her best to change Rimuru's fate and sealed herself somewhere after that. And that's how the second timeline story existed.
But what if this girl, who did so much to try and save her lover, came back to the past only to find her lover replaced by someone else?
It seems that's what happened. The synchronization of existence didn't affect Chloe, who was from another timeline.
Naturally, she tried everything she could to kill Nejire to get revenge.
In the first place, Nejire was no match for a full-powered Chloe. Chloe was the same Hero who sealed Veldora, it's complicated, but she's indeed stronger than Nejire — who was not that much stronger than Veldora.
She somehow managed to not get sealed again, since Chloe had yet to regain all of her true powers, and even if little, Nejire was still stronger than the old Veldora. But it wasn't looking good for her.
Everything was fine for the first three years she was here. She had built herself an Empire, with millions of citizens and followers whose mere existence made her stronger thanks to her skills. She enjoyed her life here.
But, all of that was stripped away when none other than Guy Crimson descended on the kingdom like a meteor. Chloe sent him Nejire's way since Chloe without her full power wasn't ready to take on Nejire.
"I have news that you're Ivaraj?" was the question Guy Crimson asked before he attacked her.
Ivaraj. She knew that name. Ivaraj was an extremely powerful True Dragon capable of destroying worlds, hence called World Destroyer Dragon. Despite being called a Dragon, he wasn't really a dragon and was from another dimension. Ivaraj lacked any intelligence and couldn't communicate. However, the beast was incredibly strong and was a threat to the Cardinal World.
Back when Ivaraj appeared last time, it was Guy Crimson and the Seven Angels who fought it. But they couldn't defeat Ivaraj, and Veldanava had to seal the old monster himself. So Guy Crimson was here for a rematch, thinking Nejire was Ivaraj.
Perhaps Chloe somehow proved to him that Nejire was not from this universe. In either case, Nejire had no choice but to engage the red-haired man in a fight for a couple of months, where she pulled the man away from her Empire, and even earth itself, to not destroy her new home.
The two of them rampaged across outer space and clashed on the surface of other planets.
After she finally took down Guy Crimson, she couldn't be relieved even for a second. Many others came after her. Veldora's siblings rushed at her, they were mad thinking that Nejire had taken over their sibling's body.
"No wonder you were acting odd!" Velgrynd yelled as she threw a scorching punch at Nejire's jaw, taking out half her face at once. It hurt. But she regenerated.
"I can't believe this is happening…" Velzard sounded sad even as she froze Nejire using her ice powers.
Chloe was trouble—Nejire should have taken care of that girl from the start. No one else could have convince these people. It's not that she didn't entirely anticipate that Chloe might be a variable, but she didn't think it'd come this far.
Now, Nejire had no other choice but to fight all these world-ending beings, one against many.
She was curious why Chloe didn't come to fight her by herself, but she got that answer when she defeated Veldora's sisters and returned to Earth. She found that Chloe… had destroyed everything that Nejire had built for years.
Chloe didn't just want to hurt her, no, she wanted to see Nejire break — that's the least one deserved for killing her lover. Chloe was a crazy bitch. She destroyed all that was precious to Nejire in this new world, all the people she cared about, and everything she knew, all of it was gone and crumbled to dust.
Nejire was alone in the world. Once again.
Nejire rushed at Chloe with full killing intent, and the girl returned the sentiment.
….
Ever since then, Nejire has been fighting Chloe for years now. Nejire was much stronger than Veldora in his prime now, but so was Chloe. Chloe had found the real Ivaraj who was sealed in Spooky Palace and killed him, growing stronger in the process. So their power level was evenly matched.
Nejire… just wanted to find a way back home. She built an empire to have extra power thanks to her skill. In the process, she met many people whom she began to care about. But now it was all gone. Just like her home world. This girl ruined it all.
On the other hand, Chloe just wanted to be with the person she loved. It messed up her bad seeing her lover replaced by a fake, a doppelganger.
Both had a justified cause, and both had a reason to kill each other. Nejire more so, as she wanted the powers that Chloe had. If she could jump timelines, that might be of use to Nejire. Beyond that, if Chloe had managed to get Ivaraj's Skills, who was from another universe, meaning he had the means to travel universes, then Nejire for sure would have everything she needed if she killed Chloe and scavenged her existence.
So, the two of them fought.
Their strength was so great that the world crumbled under their feet but neither of them fell. The solar system fell next but they continued. At one point, even the Origin Seven Angels came to stop them, but they got caught in the battle and were killed.
The universe trembled as if threatening to shatter as they fought. Nebulae vanished, and galaxies ceased to exist. But they didn't stop fighting.
For a total of five years, the two girls gave their all and fought. One fought to take revenge for her lover, and the other fought to see her brother and lover.
At one point, the universe did shatter. They fought in the emptiness of existence, within the void. There was nothing to destroy, but themselves.
Nejire would have lost, at this point.
Despite being equal, she would have lost to such a crazy maniac.
However, she had something that the girl didn't. Her brother, that bastard who was full of secrets, that liar who was a reincarnator – she learned – somehow helped her even without being present there.
[Ding! Due to being within the Void, and due to having many darkness and void-related skills, the title 'The Gamer's Sister' is reacting. You have gained temporary and partial access to your brother's "Voidmancer" class! The Void is your home.]
[All of your Void and Darkness-related skills have been strengthened.]
Immediately, the battle took a turn. Nejire's punch connected with Chloe's chin, who stumbled across the emptiness in shock. In that second of shock, Nejire called forth her skill, [Azathoth, God of Void], the ultimate form of Predator.
"N-no! Not like this!" Chloe Aubert resisted, but as the tendrils of black and red wrapped around her, her resistance became futile. She cried as Nejire devoured her existence.
The battle that's been going on for years came to an end abruptly. Only silence remained as Nejire stood in the emptiness, watching the System Prompts pass across her eyes that notified her of the skills she earned.
Out of the thousands of skills there, only one caught her eye. After losing everything twice, Nejire found her lips curling to form a small smile for the first time in years.
[Ding. You have gained the skill, "World Jump".]
Her eyes which were now emotionless were touched by a tinge of excitement.
Nejire Hado had succeeded.
"This is interesting."
Nejire's hair stood on her back as she heard a foreign voice in this empty realm. Right before she was about to activate the Skill to find her brother, were there other people who would try to stop her?
Nejire turned around with a furious scowl on her face, finding two deific women of exotic appearances standing before her.
One had white hair and golden eyes, while the other had light green hair and bright emerald eyes. The latter raised her arms in defense, smiling at her.
"Not here to stop you, sweetheart." She said, "I am simply impressed. As you're the only one of his girls who managed to find a way out by herself."
"Huh?" Nejire frowned, lowering her fighting stance.
"Hey," the white-haired lady waved at her. "I am not sure if he told you about me but… I am Lady Luck, and this is Lady Life. If you'd like, we can take you to your brother right away. It'd be much faster than using your Skill."
The two Omniversal Abstract Entities have found the person they were looking for.
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