The Essence of Blank had made many things possible — too many, in fact. Lucian's experiments with Shuna had proven he could transfer fragments of his Essence traits to others. Weaker versions, temporary gifts, conditional abilities… but after months of trial and error, he realized something obvious:
He was walking backward.
Why give others diluted, unstable traits…
when he could convert the Essence into the local power system entirely?
The problem was that most Essences didn't integrate into this world's framework. They refused to manifest as Skills.
All except one.
Essence of Nomad.
It didn't just allow teleportation.
It allowed teleportation through anything — magical systems, conceptual barriers, dimensional locks. He could command the world to simply "agree" that he was already where he wished to be.
He'd already been doing it subconsciously. His senses couldn't fully follow some of his steps because he wasn't teleporting — he was bypassing spatial rules entirely.
He never received a Skill from it because, in the relationship between Space → System → Lucian,
Lucian stood at the top.
That was the root of Plan C.
Lucian could stroll into Veldora's Infinite Prison at any time. The dense magical compression meant nothing to him. He could just grab Veldora and walk out with zero resistance.
But that gave Rimuru nothing.
And if Rimuru freed Veldora herself…
she would obtain a Skill far more valuable than Lucian ever would.
Plan C was simple:
Free Veldora — but let Rimuru be the one to do it.
And with Rimuru's newly awakened Unique Skill Dimensional Bypass, she ignored the spatial bindings of the Infinity Prison completely. It had never been designed to resist someone who could ignore spatial layers like a ghost.
Veldora was released.
---
The Storm Dragon didn't emerge quietly.
Reality split open as Veldora burst into the world in his full draconic form — massive, thunderous, majestic, a creature whose mere existence distorted the air.
Magicules poured out of him like a ruptured star.
A sonic boom tore the sky apart.
Pressure waves flattened the trees for kilometers.
Dozens of soldiers fainted instantly.
Hundreds dropped their weapons.
Thousands screamed.
His aura was enough to kill the weak-hearted.
The sky convulsed.
Clouds spiraled downward into a vortex, sucked toward Veldora like water into a drain.
Thunder answered his roar.
Lightning rained from the heavens like divine punishment, striking randomly — soldiers, ground, siege tools, even the Church's holy constructs.
Stellar winds swept across the battlefield, slicing through armor, tearing flesh, and shearing through magical shields as if they were paper.
The arrival of a True Dragon felt like the world itself was being corrected.
Merlin reacted instantly.
Her floating magical spheres snapped into formation around her, saturating themselves with the swirling magicules trying to crush her lungs. Her hair whipped violently in the gale as she steadied herself mid-air.
"Power Limit Break."
Her mana surged tenfold, ripping cracks into the ground beneath her feet before she lifted off.
"If facing a True Dragon doesn't require seriousness," she muttered, voice calm despite the chaos, "then one must be suicidal."
She shot upward.
"Fly."
Mana trails spiraled behind her as she entered the eye of Veldora's storm — the very heart of the hurricane.
Her staff glowed violently.
"Absolutely Cancel!"
A shockwave burst outward from her position.
The storm collapsed inward like a dying god. Winds vanished. Lightning hesitated. The roar of the tempest dulled.
It wasn't gone — that was impossible.
True Dragon magic wasn't something even Infinity could erase completely.
But she cut it down to ten percent of its original violence.
Even that was still enough to kill an army.
Veldora's eyes snapped toward her — bright gold, alive with excitement and irritation.
He inhaled.
Magicules spiraled into his chest, compressing into dangerous density.
He exhaled Lightning Breath.
The beam shattered the sky.
It carved through clouds like divine judgment, vaporized the air itself, and scorched trenches deep enough to swallow houses.
Merlin thrust her spheres forward.
They snapped together, forming a reflective construct that bent the attack sideways. The redirected Lightning Breath tore through the distant horizon, reducing a mountain range into dust.
Merlin didn't wait.
"Enhanced Magic: Nuclear Disintegration."
Destruction condensed into a glowing, rotating pillar of atomic erasure. The screaming air warped around it, ripping space like wet parchment.
She infused it with Infinity.
It became endless.
Self-sustaining.
A perpetual beam of dissolution.
Perfect Cube formed around Veldora — a prismatic structure trapping him inside the continuous stream of Nuclear Disintegration.
For a moment, silence took the battlefield.
Then—
"AHHHH! I JUST GOT OUT OF A CAGE!"
Veldora's roar shook the soul.
The Perfect Cube vibrated violently. Cracks formed as his magic — primal, ancient, unrestrained — bypassed conceptual defenses entirely.
The True Dragon unleashed his wrath.
The storm burst outward stronger than before.
Lightning became constant rain.
Winds sharpened, slicing bodies into pieces.
Soldiers were pulled into the sky like shredded leaves.
Dozens died instantly.
Hundreds were thrown across the earth.
Thousands were crippled.
Even Merlin's eyes narrowed. "Annoying."
---
Meanwhile, on the northern battlefield, Rimuru confronted Escanor.
The moment she saw him, she understood why Lucian warned her. The air around Escanor felt hot, even without direct flames. The sun's early morning rays wrapped around him as if he were their chosen vessel.
His pride radiated like divine charisma.
Rimuru exhaled softly. She didn't want to kill him. Lucian had given her a clear understanding of his personality: arrogant, prideful, overwhelming… but not evil.
But if it came down to protecting her people, she would not hesitate.
Escanor lifted his axe with one hand.
"Atomic Slash!"
A wave of golden heat so vast it split the clouds rushed forward.
Rimuru's blade shimmered with frosty blue energy.
"Moonfrost Slash!"
The two attacks collided — heat and frost blooming into a spiral explosion that carved a giant crater between them. Earth melted. Frost ignited. Shockwaves detonated outward in chaotic ripples.
Escanor laughed with genuine admiration.
"Impressive! To match even a portion of my power — few can claim such a feat, Slime!"
Rimuru grimaced. "Are you impressed enough to not try to kill each other? Maybe talk things out like civilized people?"
Escanor's face softened into a warm, bright smile.
"Who said fighting isn't civilized?"
He raised his sunlike hand.
"Cruel Sun."
The miniature sun dwarfed the battlefield, its radiance melting the very air as it descended upon Rimuru.
Rimuru opened her mouth.
"Devour!"
She swallowed the entire sun in one go — and immediately spat it back like a plasma cannon.
The beam slammed into Escanor's chest, sending him sliding back and cracking the earth beneath him.
He stood firm, laughing.
"Indeed! Only my own attacks may harm me!"
The sun continued to climb toward zenith.
Escanor's aura intensified.
Heat radiated off him in waves strong enough to distort space. The earth melted around his feet. The sky brightened unnaturally.
Rimuru's skin prickled from the temperature. She frowned.
Fighting him directly was becoming impossible.
She needed a new angle.
"Dimensional Bypass!"
The world around Escanor twisted violently.
Layers of space folded like origami.
Teleportation corridors overlapped.
Infinite mirrors of reality spiraled around him.
His body flickered between dimensions like unstable light.
It was like being trapped inside the moment before teleportation — endless, disorienting, timeless.
Rimuru stabilized the layers, locking him between dimensional planes.
"Stay there until the battle's over. You can't force your way out."
For a heartbeat, it held.
Then Escanor's voice boomed from the void.
"WHO DECIDED THAT!?"
A hand — burning like a second sun — punched through the dimensional layers, ripping open space like fragile cloth.
Rimuru stumbled back, eyes widening.
"Oh for— seriously!?"
Escanor emerged, radiating heat so intense the ground beneath him turned to molten glass.
His aura intensified with every passing second.
The sun approached its peak.
Power flooded him.
Light crowned him.
His shadow vanished entirely — swallowed by sheer radiance.
"Prepare yourself, Slime," he said, voice deep and majestic. "Your existence is shortening."
The world trembled.
Even Veldora paused mid-roar.
Merlin's spell formations flickered.
Massive cracks split the battlefield.
Magicules surged like a violent tide.
Rimuru braced herself, sweat dripping down her brow.
Across the battlefield — far to the west — a new pressure stirred.
Lucian and the commander were fighting.
Escanor tore through space again, heat distorting reality.
The sun neared its zenith.
Light swallowed everything.
And the earth shook beneath the unstoppable rise of the One.