DID YOU KNOW? YOU CAN NOW READ THREE TO SIX CHAPTERS AHEAD. CHECK MY PROFILE FOR THE LINK.
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How did it get to this?
Those were the words of Rimuru's thoughts as he recreated the barrier that Guy Crimson had used back at the last Walpurgis.
Inside the barrier stood the two people who would be fighting for the custody of Hinata Sakaguchi.
The Antari, Hachi, and Hinata Sakaguchi herself.
Rimuru stared at the two women from outside the barrier, his expression becoming increasingly complicated as he wondered how exactly a diplomatic negotiation had somehow transformed into a duel over the fate of one of Lubelius's most important people.
He had agreed to the wager. He had helped establish the rules.
He had even created the barrier to ensure that neither Hachi nor Hinata would accidentally destroy the surrounding area during their fight.
And yet, somehow, he still couldn't believe this was actually happening.
"This is ridiculous..." Rimuru muttered under his breath.
Luminous stood beside him, her arms folded elegantly across her chest as she watched the two combatants with a faint smile. "Perhaps."
A little farther away, the Great Saints had finally been freed from Hanae's vines, although several of them were still rubbing their shoulders and glaring suspiciously at the surrounding monsters.
Arnaud, however, seemed to have completely forgotten his previous predicament.
He was practically vibrating with excitement.
"Lady Hinata!" he called out, raising a fist into the air. "Show them the might of Lubelius!"
Garde immediately joined him. "That's right! Lady Hinata will crush this monster!"
"Don't underestimate her!" Saare added, looking toward Hachi with a serious expression. "Hinata has faced opponents far more dangerous than this."
Grigori nodded firmly. "This should be over quickly."
Fritz, however, merely sighed. "You people really haven't learned anything from what happened five minutes ago, have you?"
Leonard looked toward the battlefield, his expression more restrained. "Regardless, Lady Hinata has the advantage in experience."
Bacchus grinned. "Experience, huh? Well, let's see how much that counts for."
Litus remained quiet, though her eyes were fixed firmly upon Hachi.
The other members of Maple Tree had gathered on the opposite side of the barrier.
Hanae stood near Kaede, her hands clasped together as she looked toward Hachi with obvious concern.
"You can do it, Hachi!" she called out.
Hachi turned her head slightly and smiled.
Shuna immediately raised both hands. "Lady Hachi!"
The Antari blinked.
Shuna smiled warmly. "Do your best!"
Rimuru's head snapped toward her. "Shuna?"
She looked at him innocently. "Yes?"
"You're cheering for Hachi?"
Shuna tilted her head. "Of course."
Rimuru stared at her, his mouth opened. Then closed. There wasn't really anything he could say to that.
Shion, meanwhile, raised a fist into the air. "Go, Hachi!"
Benimaru glanced at her. "You're supporting Hachi too?"
"Of course!" Shion replied without hesitation. "She's adorable!"
Soei quietly nodded. "I believe Lady Hachi has sufficient motivation."
Hakurou smiled faintly. "It should be an interesting match."
Kaede stood near the front of Maple Tree's group, watching Hachi with a small smile.
"Don't worry, Hachi," she called. "As long as you don't kill her, it should be fine."
In the distance Rimuru yelled. "That's not a pep talk!"
Hinata glanced toward the opposing side. Her eyes settled on Kaede. Then on Shuna.
Then finally on Rimuru.
To her surprise, Rimuru was standing with his arms crossed, looking considerably more serious than he had been moments earlier.
Hinata raised an eyebrow.
"Don't look so surprised," Rimuru called out. "I'm rooting for you."
Hinata blinked. "...You are?"
"Yeah." Rimuru shrugged. "You're my friend, aren't you?"
Hinata's expression softened almost imperceptibly. "You'd better not regret saying that."
"I won't."
Luminous glanced sideways at him. "How touching."
Rimuru looked at her. "What?"
"Nothing." Her smile was suspicious.
Within the barrier, Hachi slowly rolled her shoulders.
She could feel the weight of the weapon in her hand, although it wasn't really a weapon in the conventional sense.
"You're really okay with this?"
Hinata looked confused. "With what?"
"Fighting me."
Hinata was silent for a moment. Then she nodded. "I accepted the wager."
Hachi looked down briefly before raising her eyes again. "I don't want to hurt you too badly."
Hinata's expression twitched. "Don't worry about me." She reached toward her sword.
The atmosphere immediately changed. The casual conversation outside the barrier died down.
Everyone became quiet.
Hachi slowly lowered herself into a fighting stance, her eyes narrowing as she focused on the woman standing opposite her.
Hinata drew her sword. The blade emerged with a soft metallic sound.
Rimuru's expression became serious.
The Great Saints stopped cheering.
Shuna clasped her hands together.
Kaede's eyes narrowed.
Luminous watched silently.
Even Veldora, who had been looking increasingly excited about the whole thing, finally stopped talking.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then both of them moved at almost the exact same moment.
Hinata rushed forward like a bullet, her speed leaving behind several afterimages as she crossed the distance between them in an instant.
At the same time, Hachi spread her arms apart as though she were embracing the sky, and several holes suddenly opened in reality behind her.
Clang!
Hinata's sword was deflected by a massive insectoid limb that emerged from one of the openings, appearing just in time to intercept the blade and protect Hachi from the attack.
There were exactly six holes behind Hachi, and from each one, a large insect-like limb curled outward, wrapping around the Antari like the ribs of some enormous skeletal creature. The limbs moved independently, their sharp edges glinting as they followed Hinata's movements and remained poised to defend their mistress.
Hinata immediately created some distance between them, her eyes darting from side to side as she carefully examined her surroundings.
The entire space within the barrier was now filled with holes and tears in space, each one twisting unnaturally as though the fabric of reality itself had been pierced.
Outside the barrier, Luminous watched the scene with an intrigued expression.
"An unusual application of summoning magic," she murmured, her eyes following the countless spatial distortions. "She isn't merely summoning creatures around herself. She's using the spatial apertures themselves as points from which her summons can emerge."
From each tear in space, figures suddenly crawled out in bursts of terrifying speed.
Hinata barely had time to react before two enormous sickles came swinging toward her from opposite directions, both attached to the limbs of an insectoid abomination with a pair of translucent wings.
Clang!
She caught one sickle with her sword before twisting her body and allowing the other to pass dangerously close to her shoulder.
In the same motion, Hinata stepped forward.
Slash!
Her blade flashed.
The insect was split cleanly apart. Its body separated into three pieces before it could even react.
Hinata landed lightly on the ground, her eyes immediately searching for the next target.
There was no shortage of them.
Dozens of monsters had already emerged from Hachi's spatial tears, each one possessing some variation of an insectoid body. Some crawled along the ground on multiple limbs, others flew through the air with buzzing wings, while several larger creatures moved on all fours, their mandibles opening and closing as they charged toward Hinata.
More continued to emerge.
Luminous's eyes narrowed slightly as she watched the battlefield becoming increasingly crowded.
"Will there be enough room for all those monsters?" she asked, glancing toward Kaede. "With so little space for Hinata to maneuver, she could easily be overwhelmed simply by the sheer number of summons."
Kaede shrugged, completely unconcerned. "Flattery will get you nowhere."
Meanwhile, Rimuru watched the battle from outside the barrier, his expression becoming increasingly thoughtful. 'Luminous is right, though.'
His eyes moved across the battlefield.
'With this many summons packed into such a small area, Hachi's going to turn the entire place into a swarm. Hinata's going to have less and less room to move.'
Rimuru's expression tightened. 'Now Luminous probably thinks I planned this with Kaede.'
His gaze shifted toward the barrier. 'But I can't just make the barrier bigger. If I expand it too much, it'll wreck the garden.'
He paused. 'Actually... why are we even having a fight in the garden?'
Rimuru sighed internally. 'This whole situation is ridiculous.'
<>
Rimuru's eyes brightened. 'Really, Raphael? You're the best. Now lay it on me!'
The answer came almost immediately. Rimuru's expression slowly changed into a satisfied smile. "Not to worry, Luminous."
He raised one hand toward the barrier. "I've got it."
Immediately, the space inside the barrier warped.
There was no explosion of energy or dramatic flash of light. Instead, reality itself seemed to bend inward, the battlefield stretching away from the spectators as though someone had suddenly grabbed the world and pulled it into the distance.
To everyone watching from outside, Hachi and Hinata appeared to shrink.
Not because they had actually become smaller.
Rather, the distance between them and the outside world had suddenly become impossibly vast.
The garden remained exactly as it was. Yet within the barrier, an entirely separate expanse had been created.
Luminous's eyes widened slightly. "...Oh."
Rimuru lowered his hand with a satisfied smile. "Problem solved."
Kaede looked toward him. "Show-off."
Rimuru's smile widened. "Thank you."
Luminous scoffed quietly, folding her arms as she continued watching the battle.
But beneath her outwardly dismissive expression, her thoughts were already analyzing what she had just witnessed.
'Warping space to create another dimension within the barrier.' Her heterochromatic eyes narrowed slightly. 'Something like this...'
She looked toward Rimuru. 'He's come quite far in such a relatively short time as a Demon Lord.'
Then her attention returned to the battlefield.
The dimensional space had given Hachi's summons all the room they needed.
And Hinata was now surrounded.