C213: Pork-Deli Disaster
Alt Title teaser: Mutual exchange
Date published: 4/27/2025.
Due to the contents of this chapter, I'll release a new character status page soon as the first one is way too messy. I can totally trim unnecessary details there but I'll leave the original as a reference point at the very least. ENJOY
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Before Rimuru's 'eyes', Axel's body dissolves into a slime form of his own. Compared to Rimurus, Axel's own body is more star like thanks to his old gravity affinity. That was wiped out a long time ago when he first used the divine domain but he brought it back for style.
"My father is the future Demon Lord, Rimuru Tempest"
"Ohh, very impressive. Wait that's me" Rimuru's brain seemed to lag at Seeing a slime similar to itself just before him. The initial shock wore off after a few seconds of silence before the brain restarted, likely thanks to his great sage.
"I'm…i'm your father?" Rimuru brings out one of it's slime arms and points at himself while Axel shrugs through a similar motion.
"Yes and no. You know the multiverse theory?" The response is a question mark popping up via slime manipulation from Rimuru.
"It's a theory that every action you take or don't take causes parallel universes to occur that provide different results to similar situations. Say for example you didn't choose to make this feast today, you could have ended up being ambushed by the ogres and lives would have actually gotten lost." Axel explains the theory and provides an example which causes Rimuru to gulp in apprehension.
"So what is so special about this theory?"
"Well it's about the fact that one version of you, from the future, who does become a demon lord. Dies. I through a freak accident while in the process of being reincarnated, had fused with this soul but only partially. It ripped my soul apart and I ripped it apart. Later someone or something saved me after this process repeated itself quite a few times, my soul was left as a husk of it's original human self. When I was finally stabilized and reborn, I met a spirit fragment of that Rimuru who I acknowledged as my parent. I then was reborn as a slime and about a year ago I had undone the soul damage done to me through a unique skill of mine. I still retained the slime morph since it's just…better"
"Wow, that is a lot to take in. I understand why you didn't want to share this with anyone else. What was I like as a spirit?"
"You were in human form, seemingly mimicking my own human form when I was younger"
"How old are you anyways?"
"13. That was also the same age my original human state was when I was reborn. It sucked."
"Thats no way to live. But enough about your age, why did you look for me in the first place?"
"During the soul fracture moment, I had also gained a variation of [great Sage] yet I've always felt mine is….incomplete. Very useful sure but to my knowledge, nowhere near as strong as your own even though mine is supposed to be considered more advanced."
"Ehhh, more advanced? Does that mean [Great Sage] can evolve or something? Or what do you mean that your's feels incomplete?"
"Correct, though you will need to meet a few certain requirements to undergo this evolution. The first piece of the puzzle is with the invading orcs that you heard about. As for mine, it's like a computer program, it has the basic framework but it's akin to multiple databases simply missing but not compromising the skills power." Axel gives an analogy that while Rimuru cant fully understand, he gets the premise of it. Like a phone without any ram or something like that.
"To explain it better, your Great Sage is akin to a floating robot companion with a telepathic link to you, it absorbs your excess energy to power itself and keep making you infinitely stronger while mine is closer to a parasite I tolerate that does the bare minimum to give back." Rimuru notices that Axel's tone seems to change, like he is venting his frustrations and the slime father can understand why.
"For a better comparison of functions, we could both be hit by fireballs and absorb through our own devouring abilities but while I have a stronger version that allows me to not take any damage from a regular fireball. Yet I can't learn the fireball spell from that nor gain fire resistance. While you can." Axel finally ends his rant session while Rimuru nods along like a parrot.
"Wow. that is really a big difference"
"I know, it's really dumb, especially in this scenario, I possess the actual magical law of Fire yet I still don't possess these immunities that you already do."
"How do you know I have immunities?"
"Oh yea, you're an anime character in an isekai show from one of the versions of earth that a soul fragment was from. I call it Prime Earth as authors or storytellers have this supernatural power to know about the events of other worlds."
"Ehh, so people are watching us right now?"
"There shouldn't be because of my existence. The moment I showed up there should be a new timeline to account for everything I do here. You won't be erased or anything like the moment I leave as it creates a foothold for me to come back at any time. But maybe there will be someone on Earth who will be able to tell my own story at some point."
Steam rises from Rimuru's head as he processes the whole situation and with an uncertain tone, he asks."What is it that you needed from the version that is me?
"I believe we can touch hands that will allow both our extra skills to properly analyze each other. Ill get the missing framework while you will get a few boosts too and if you don't, ill give you my arm to absorb"
Axel makes his offer as the trade is more than fair, at least by his standards. He finally gets the real great sage abilities and maybe evolves his [raphael] into it's proper state of Azathoth but he might still be lacking a few factors there since he definitely does not possess Veldora nor Velgrynd but he might be able to replicate the former through his fire laws and the latter by his dragon god laws.
Retaking his human form, Axel extends his hand towards the future slime father who nervously looks at Axel but sighs and takes on his own and extends his hand.
"[Raphael]"
"[Great Sage]"
["Analyze"] x2
The two glow up as their energies spread into each other. As mentioned before [Raphael] begins to study Great Sage's general framework for processing and work while Great Sage begins to derive new variables from its supposed future form but it witnesses how [Raphael] becomes ever more so complete. This is instrumental data to let Great Sage know what the variables are that need to be taken in to properly evolve. Expediting it's future evolution.
[Great Sage framework reacquired]
[Raphael made whole]
[Fire Immunity derived from Fire Laws]
[Cold Immunity derived from Ice Laws]
[Thermal Manipulation obtained from merger of Fire and Cold immunities]
[Water resistance derived from water Laws]
[Lightning Immunity derived from Lightning laws]
[Thunder Immunity derived from Sound laws]
[Darkness Immunity derived from Darkness magic Laws]
[Bludgeoning Resistance derived from martial laws]
[Slashing Resistance derived from martial laws]
[...Immunity derived from… x 87]
[Degenerate: Synthesis and Separation obtained from Great Sage subfunctions. Separation integrated into Divine Domain: Reverse Cycle of Reincarnation, granting greater control and initial strength by pre-registering a power to automatically absorb upon usage]
[Degenerate: Synthesis merged into Raphael framework. User may now pick and choose skills and abilities to merge into new products, originals will be lost]
Axel clutches his head from the vast amount of information flowing through his head as all his powers get properly sorted into new and improved forms as due to the lacking framework, [Raphael] had never optimized his abilities to their most powerful or most efficient state but that is indeed the case now.
[Pain immunity acquired from headache]
The headache clears up for Axel who looks at Rimuru who seemed to be processing his own information but it's alot less. Axel sighs as he upholds his end of the bargain and using his right hand, rips off his left, holding it out to Rimuru
"Time for my end of the bargain. Unlike your own slime form, I mimic the future yous' body typing. This means I actually replicated bones and blood which served as mediums for my physical strength and receptacle for my magic power for instant casting. You might not need it as much now but it's instrumental in the future if you plan to get stronger at all. "
"Oh, I recommend that you only take in 1 cell at a time, it will take you a few months to process my whole arm but you will be alot stronger, this means most demon lords will likely not wanna mess with you but until then be careful." Axel explains the dangers of his body types as even with the impaired but stronger [Raphael], it took him a long time to process the raw laws and actually create a soul bound weapon to act as it's centerpiece.
Yet this was a time when Axel was already in his own mortal peak and the laws simply ascended him further, for Rimuru who is currently in his original slime state, this is much more difficult which is why he set up multiple warnings and stop gate measures to help Rimuru survive the absorption of these laws.
Axel then regains his own arm and tests it out a bit while Rimuru wraps it up and stores the torn arm away and in hiding. The two spend some idle time chatting but Axel does not reveal anything about what is to come except the impending orc army which he is already learning about. Their interactions are primarily awkward as Rimuru is unsure how he could have children as a slime while Axel realizes that the time progression of this world is much more realistic than he expected as his memory falters in regards to every instance of 'x number of weeks pass before blank happens'.
Eventually night arrives closer and Rimuru gets to taste food for the first time in his new human form while Axel casually eats whilst chatting with the dwarf Haijin and the ogres. He listens to their story of how their village was overrun by orcs and the majin who showed up in their home.
"It was an angry clown type of mask, right?"
"What do you know now?"
"Moderate Harlequin Alliance, an organization created long ago by a fallen demon lord who was killed 200 years ago by the hero of that time.They now act as mercenaries for different demon lords but primarily Clayman."
"You keep mentioning Clayman but do you have a grudge against him?"
"Not at all, we have never met, I just don't like his looks." The listeners are baffled by his words but a few just shake their heads as they discuss the new information about the harlequin alliance but as none others have been spotted since then there are few leads.
Eventually Rimuru himself joins the discussion and it eventually turns into the canon event where the ogres pledge their allegiance to Rimuru until the orc army is defeated. The red haired prince then looks at Axel who is still casually sitting there.
"As for your offer, I can not make a decision on this yet. I hope you can give me a bit more time."
"No problem, I'm not in a hurry, nor do I plan to leave any time soon. Though the Majin you are looking for that created the orcs will die before the orc lord dies. Just be aware of the timeline of things" Axel waves his hand sideways as he doesnt mind any sort of delay, even if the agreement doesnt go through at all is fine since then it's just up to him to be true to his word and pursue the pure relationship he mentioned when he first proclaimed his new mental state.
The prince is conflicted on his desire for revenge versus selling his last two companions to the people he just met but he shakes himself off this mental state as he would surely not agree. They continue to discuss what is to come next when Rimuru mentions that he will name them.
Just like the original, Rimuru passes out after naming everyone but it was likely a great sage who took over his body partially to name them as he himself has no memory of the names.
"Ehh, is Rimuru-sama going to be alright?"
"He is just low on magicules, he will awaken in a few days, don't worry, he does this alot." Axel reassures them before he departs from the room and does his own bit to help the town's construction, he can just wave his hand and make buildings in his territory but it's a nice change of pace to help manually.
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Following the next few days Rimuru had woken up and had his reintroduction with the now Oni, Specifically a superior type of Oni called Kijin. They experienced overall boosts to their abilities in various ways. The prince, Benimaru had switched from a swordsman into a spiritualist as he wields powerful magic flames. Tossing aside his bulky samurai armor, he changed to a stylish red robe whilst still keeping his sword in emergencies.
After this there was the fateful encounter with Gabiru and his lizardman army. After being swept by Gobta (the previously mentioned goblin looking hobgoblin), the lizardmen ran away and met up with one of the clowns, Laplace who goads them into usurping Gabirus own father as Chieftain. At the same time as their departure, Souei, the ninja styled oni, had met with the chieftain to propose an alliance. Rimuru also took on the first drop of blood from Axel's arm and nearly died until Great Sage stabilized him from dying of electric shock therapy.
Elsewhere, "Don't you think you're doing a bit too much?" Axel appears from behind a tree as he stares right at Laplace who seems to jump a bit at his sudden appearance.
"Ah, a mysterious young man, how can I help you?" laplace asks with a bead of sweat dripping down his face as he has no information on who this person is. He completely does not believe that this person is human unless it had somehow gotten here so silently through pure physical abilities. Yet even that would create some sort of wind effect from the high speed movement yet there was nothing.
Taking a defensive stance the clown awaits an answer but is only met with an extended palm that suddenly emits a wind suction force that pulls the clown forward until his neck is grabbed. Laplace attempts to resist this force as well as Axels hand when that first attempt failed but this is also to no avail.
"Ill destroy the rest of what remains of your lord if you ever appear in this forest again." Axel stares down at laplace as the clown soon enough notices that the trees are no longer hiding the sun for him, as for why. It's because Axel has grown to 5 meters tall (roughly 15ft) and now waves his arm, swinging Laplace very far away.
Reverting back to normal, Axel begins to make his way back to the 'unnamed' town of Rimuru but as he does, "I hope you don't mention this for now. I bear no ill will to the forest or him. I technically got all i really needed until now so i'm just spectating now. Ill help where Im needed but thats really it" He gets no response but he knows that the dryads of this forest heard him.
After he makes his way back to the village, he spends his time idle as the days go by while Gabiru usurps his father and locks his family up, taking the fight to the orcs where he has initial success but eventually gets trapped.
Axel accompanies Rimuru and the Kijin in begin their assault on the orcs, Souei saves the lizardmen and the alliance is finalized between them. From there the war is restarted against the orcs and soon enough Gelmud is cornered next to the orc Lord Geld.
Axel reveals that the masked man is named Gelmud who created the Orc Lord. Gelmud had gone into hiding after not hearing from Laplace who went to manipulate Gabiru earlier this week. As such, he had no encounter with the dryad Treyni.
Seeing himself surrounded, Gelmud begins to rant about how useless everyone is before cowering in the absurdity of Axel's, the Kijins and Rimurus power as they slay the orcs until not even ashes remain so the Orc Lords [Starved] can't work at all.
Gelmud attempts to command Geld but this backfires as he is once again killed (like canon) by the Orc lord and then promptly devoured yet he was stabbed in the heart by a single rapier that appeared from nowhere and then disappeared just as quickly. The Kijin did notice that Axel's own magic powers had spiked for a moment but other than that have no clue what happened as the Majin was killed off and devoured.
Thus the Orc Disaster, the demon lord Geld rises into prominence. Axel helps by severing a few of the orc Disasters limbs but left it mostly to Rimuru to finish as he needs to absorb Geld to properly end this situation and upgrade his [Predator] into [Gluttony].
Axel settled for devouring the limbs he cut off to boost his own magicule count but he also gained a bit of [starved] from the flesh which was added to his own [Great Devourer] upgrading it slightly.
The event ends pretty uneventfully as Axel is still in the early parts of Rimurus story so there are few things that can threaten him at this point. Instead he is looking forward to Carybdis far more as it was completely destroyed by Demon Lord Milim and nothing except a few scales were absorbed by Rimuru. He is quite curious of what type of abilities he could gain from the proto Demon lord.
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Alt Title: Discussion with a slime, Smacking a Majin and Stabbing Another, Orc Disaster.
Word count: 3142
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.