Illya got to work.

Currently, she’s waving her hands around doing stuff I have no clue about. I feel her doing something though, evidenced by the fact that she’s fiddling with [Belzebuth].

Though to an outsider, she looks like she’s gone crazy.

*Illya stomps on Rimuru’s foot angrily before going back to work*

.

.

.

So soft… STEP ON ME MORE-

*Cough*

Calm down, Rimuru. That’s a dangerous road you’re walking down…

In any case, her actions get me curious. What exactly is going on? And so, I use my connection with Illya to read into what she’s doing.

The result?

I see a bunch of nonsense.

I have no clue what she’s doing. I can't even explain what I'm seeing or what’s going through her head, it's just going so fast and I can't process what she’s doing at all.

Well, if Illya were to fuse with me, that would be a different story.

In any case, I decided to take a figurative step back.

You know that saying where if you can't figure something out, taking a step back and changing your perspective might just fix the problem? It’s like that.

And yes, I do philosophy. My most famous quote to date is “you will never fail if you never try in the first place”. I'm sure I heard it somewhere else, but this is a new world so copyright can kiss my-

*Cough*

I digress.

Anyway, taking a figurative step back let me ignore all the minor details and take a look at the bigger picture. I don’t know “how”, and the “why” is a bit iffy, but this way I can observe Illya’s general thought process.

It’s like this:

Mikoto’s soul is damaged. We’ve already established that.

Specifically, Bryce “ripped” her Protection, her Biribiri Crest, off of her forcefully.

.

.

.

Biribiri Crest? Are you high, Veldanava? What is that name?

Fortunately, that’s the only thing Bryce took. Unfortunately, that was enough to force Mikoto into a coma and would’ve resulted in her soul gradually breaking down if not for Illya halting the degeneration right after we arrived.

Not only that, this happened right in the middle of her evolution-

HOLY SHIT MIKOTO WENT THROUGH AN EVOLUTION!? That explains the sexy outfit she was in before!

Anyway, it happened during her evolution, so her evolution wasn’t completed and it’s also a little fucked up because of it. Normally, she would’ve evolved into a Saint, the final evolution for a human. But now, for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, that evolution path is cut off.

Yes, Mikoto can no longer evolve into a Saint.

Jesus Christ, even in your death, you still cause us so many problems, Bryce…

I proceed to increase the intensity of the Boku no Pico marathon watching Bryce’s soul is going through before turning my attention back to Illya’s hand-waving.

Anyway, Bryce took her Biribiri Crest, so the solution is simple.

Just give it back.

Illya fiddled with Bryce’s soul in my [Belzebuth] stomach and realised something rather interesting.

Mikoto’s Biribiri Crest has fused with the Storm Crest. It seemed Bryce knew his Protection was inferior and wanted to enhance it.

Fucker.

I add some nutcracking rituals to Bryce’s soul in the middle of his marathon. Every few seconds, a random foot will come flying into his spiritual nuts.

Illya then proceeds to sever his connection with the Storm Crest. Well, rather than “sever”, it’s more like she ripped it straight off. It seems she’s also pissed at him.

What happens next is a complete surprise for me though. It seems I underestimated the [Deprive] Unique Skill when it was used on Veldora.

It didn’t just take everything FROM Veldora, it took Veldora himself.

Well, it’s not really Veldora. It’s more like a subconsciousness, an alternate personality, or something along those lines. Regardless, it’s a core aspect of the True Dragon that used to be called Veldora.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ll call this the Veldora Aspect.

Bryce pretty much sealed the Veldora Aspect within himself, which also prevented Veldora from resurrecting as all True Dragons should. Although I'm pretty sure Bryce himself didn’t know this…

So [Deprive] turns out to be stronger than expected, but that also fucked over Bryce in a couple of ways.

First off, if any of the other True Dragons knew this, death would be the least of concern for Bryce.

Secondly, having the Veldora Aspect within himself reduced his own control over the Storm Crest, hence, its weakened state.

Fucking idiot.

And so, without any drama (aside from her dramatic hand waving), she freed the Veldora Aspect. With a flash of black lightning, it left Illya’s hands and shot out the window, seeking a magicule rich place to resurrect itself in.

This caused a bit of panic to ensue within my subordinates watching behind me, but I reassured them that it’s fine.

With the Veldora Aspect gone, however, the Storm Crest lost much of its strength, becoming nothing more than a “shell” or a “container”. It still holds SOME power, but it’s nowhere near the strength of a Protection. It’s more like a very weak blessing.

The Biribiri Crest was unaffected, however.

But seeing the “container” state the crest is in, I get a bit of an idea.

From the information I can see through Illya, as diluted as it is, I realise that this can be an opportunity.

The empty Storm Crest can be used to transfer something to Mikoto without any sort of fuss. Sure, I can do the same thing with my runes, but I might as well take the chance when it presents itself, right?

I can put something in the crest, and since the Storm Crest is connected to the Biribiri Crest (I can't get over that name) and the Biribiri Crest is a part of Mikoto, transferring something into her would be a piece of cake.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to fiddle with her soul. That is a taboo in my mind as this can effectively change who a person is.

Restoring her soul to how it should be is acceptable, but I don’t want to change anything else. I'm sure she would also get very angry with me if I do something like that, regardless if it’s to her or not.

No, what I'm thinking of is to simply give her something that should prove very beneficial.

And so, I ask Illya about it.

Rimuru- “Hey, Illya… can we give something to Mikoto through the Storm Crest? Say, for example… a Demon Lord Seed and 20,000 souls?”

-----

Name: Rimuru

Race: Origin Slime

Protection: Crest of Space

Title: Highest Tier Spirit, Leader of the Monsters, Onii-chan, King of Avalon, Master of Headpats, Procrastinator King, The Nutcracker, socially awkward cringe slightly chuuni slime, Dragon Slayer, Sensei

Manas: [Manas: Illyasviel]

Ultimate Skills: [Belzebuth, Lord of Gluttony] [Ahura Mazda, Lord of Creation] [Scathach, Lord of Runes]

Unique Skills: [Spatial Ruler]

Intrinsic Skills: [Infinite Regeneration] [Universal Shapeshift] [Universal Sense] [Enhanced Replication] [Universal Thread]

Extra Skills: [Lord's Ambition] [Thought Communication] [Control Natural Elements] [Control Magic] [Control Gravity]

Resistances: [Cancel Pain] [Resist Melee Attack] [Cancel Natural Elements] [Cancel Ailments] [Cancel Spiritual Attack] [Resist Holy/Demonic Attack] [Natural Attack Resistance]

Equipment: Yamato