This was an endless plain, with lakes and lush pastures.
Rin didn't destroy the environment, but instead chose a relatively barren area, then activated his Ultimate Skill—Void God.
Rumble rumble~
The ground trembled, dirt churned, and massive rocks surged up in front of the three, quickly forming a cave.
The cave's entrance was sealed by an iron door, and its appearance was almost identical to the Sealed Cave in the Great Jura Forest.
"Alright."
Rin lowered his hand and smiled. "I've created a labyrinth here."
"Labyrinth…"
Velzard naturally knew what a labyrinth was. She had seen the fairy Ramiris before.
However, she didn't quite understand why Rin had created one here.
"Wait."
Suddenly, Velzard thought of a possibility.
She quickly stepped forward and pushed open the labyrinth door.
In the next moment, a surge of rolling magicules burst out from inside. The aura within was something Velzard was all too familiar with.
"This is… the Sealed Cave!"
"That's right."
Rin motioned for Velzard and Ogerpon to follow him inside, then closed the door behind them.
Upon entering the labyrinth, Velzard found that the cave's environment was exactly the same as the Sealed Cave.
"Did you recreate it? Or…"
"What do you think?"
"It's a door."
Velzard affirmed, "Rin, you didn't make a new Sealed Cave in the Otherworld. You fixed the passage between the two worlds through that door."
Rin nodded in approval, then picked up the pace and led the two women across the entire underground labyrinth.
Then—
"The Great Jura Forest…"
From the labyrinth entrance to its exit.
What appeared before Velzard and Ogerpon was none other than the cave that once sealed Veldora.
"This is one of the results of my development of Void God."
"No longer limited to simple teleportation or traversal."
"I can now connect previously discovered worlds directly to the Cardinal World."
It was like a portal linking different worlds.
From now on, Rin's trips to the Konosuba Universe would no longer be restricted by frequency or cooldowns.
Among the worlds Rin had already recorded, aside from the Soul Land Universe which was still sealed, similar connections could now be established to all others.
"Now, the only thing that can impose a cooldown on Void God is exploring a new world."
Traveling to a new world would still place a burden on Void God.
However, Rin was already thinking of solutions for that problem.
He had an idea.
And the Konosuba World, extracted from the Konosuba Universe, was an experiment he had prepared.
"Looks like the experiment went pretty well."
Rin glanced back at the Sealed Cave. The three of them once again passed through the underground labyrinth and returned to the Konosuba World.
"Rin!!!!!"
At the same time, a blue figure streaked like a meteor from the capital of the Monster Nation, heading straight for the Sealed Cave.
In just a short moment, Rimuru had already sensed Rin's aura.
She didn't hesitate for a second and immediately rushed over to drag this slacking Demon Lord back.
"This…"
Velzard asked with slight concern, "Is this alright?"
"Ah, it's fine. Really."
"Rimuru is actually part of the experiment."
You thought I leaked my aura by accident?
As if.
Rin did it on purpose.
His goal was to provoke Rimuru and use her to test the stability of the passage.
Boom!!
The meteor slammed into the ground. Rimuru looked at her old home, the Sealed Cave where she had once stayed for a long time.
Then, she stormed inside.
At first, Rimuru moved quickly. Within just a few minutes, she had crossed the upper and middle levels.
But once she reached the lower level, an invisible force pressed down on her, making her movements increasingly sluggish.
"What is this?"
Rimuru kept moving forward, resisting the pressure.
But she quickly realized she couldn't go any further.
"Did Rin do something?"
"No, that's not right."
Rimuru dismissed that thought.
There was no trace of Rin's aura in the force blocking her.
Or rather, it wasn't even magicules. It was something more mysterious. Something more fundamental.
[Alert: Unanalyzable power detected ahead. Continued advancement is not recommended.]
"Huh?"
Rimuru froze.
This was the first time she'd ever heard Great Sage say something like "unanalyzable."
And just as the girl hesitated, Rin's voice echoed in her mind.
"Rimuru, help me out. Try to break through that restriction with everything you've got, but don't harm the forest outside the cave."
"Rin!!"
Rimuru immediately realized.
She'd been set up by Rin again.
First, he left her alone to deal with a mountain of paperwork.
Now, he'd lured her here just to run some test.
"You heartless boss!!"
"I'm coming for you right now! Today I'm gonna hang you from a lamppost!!"
And so, for the next thirty minutes, Rimuru threw everything she had at the barrier.
She even unleashed her ultimate move—merging with Great Sage in a way similar to Violet's possession-type fusion.
But—
Haa~ haa~
"Why…"
Rimuru looked down at her feet. She had reached the bottom of the cave, but couldn't move another step.
After Rin's adjustments, the Sealed Cave now had two entrances.
These two formed a V-shape.
One opened into the Great Jura Forest.
The other into the northwest corner of Axel.
Rimuru was now at the lowest point of the V.
Ahead was the slope and stairway leading toward the Youmu Isekai.
But…
She couldn't move forward.
In front of her, an unimaginably terrifying and invisible force blocked her from entering the new world.
This wasn't something that could be explained by a mere gap in power.
It was a fundamental difference.
The path behind her and the path ahead were from two different worlds.
In between, an invisible and imperceptible wall separated them.
If Rimuru were to try and break through it, she would be going up against the barrier of an entire universe.
Do not underestimate this.
Breaking through it meant having the power to destroy a universe.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)