A/N: Last chapter, I said the time dilation of the 'Hyperbolic Time Barrier' was 1000 times faster inside rather than outside, and that 1 day outside equaled 41 days inside.
I meant 1 HOUR outside is 41 days inside (actually 41 days and 16 hours).
The plan was to spend one day (outside time) training the Ten Great Saints, which means they would stay inside the barrier for 1,000 days, or roughly two years and nine months. This is because it takes a while for the flesh of a Human Saint to evolve into their Spiritual Lifeform State. Luminous was awakening them, then they'd spend the time acclimating to their new power levels.
I felt like I had to explain that so people would understand how busted/OP they are now.
The MC is also going to get his final powerup this chapter and it's a bit rushed, but I really want to get on with the story since, up until this point and even a bit beyond, no one is able to challenge the MC, so a timeskip is definitely happening after this arc.
.~.~.~.
"I think I went a little overboard," Rimuru commented.
I rolled my eyes. "You think?" I asked sarcastically as I looked at our subordinates.
Banimaru, Diablo, Geld, Gabil, Ranga, Shion, Charys, Scylla, Helga, Icarus, and Makima.
All of them, True Demon Lords currently undergoing their own evolutionary slumber.
I glanced over to Rimuru. He never explicitly told me this, but I knew he had some kind of Skill that made him stronger the more powerful his subordinates become, as he went from middle-tier True Demon Lord level, where Luminous was his rival in terms of strength, to damn near True Dragon level over the course of him evolving his subordinates.
Granted, as he was now, he was only about as strong as I was before I began my training and merged with my previous human self, so I could, in theory, still defeat Rimuru with only mild difficulty; however, when you added in his Ultimate Skills...
Let's just say I hope I finish analyzing my new energy pattern before I have to fight him, as I only think I have about a 50% chance.
It was quite abnormal, the more I thought about it. Rimuru was growing in power much more quickly than he realistically should be able to. Just the jump in power alone should be near-fatal to him in terms of just getting Magicule poisoning from the sudden jump, but he was perfectly fine.
'It's almost like he's a True Dragon... no, that's not possible.' I thought to myself before dismissing the idea.
I turned to Shizu and stared for a moment. "Why didn't you take the chance to evolve?" I asked her.
Shizu shook her head exasperatedly. "I don't want to be the same as Leon." She stated flatly.
I was surprised but didn't say anything more, deciding instead to go over to talk with Luminous. She had just finished using [Asmodeus]'s [Life Domination] to convert the Ten Great Saints from Enlightened into actual Saints. She looked exhausted and I had a bad feeling I was going to be used as a battery again. Especially since Milim was now dragging away Rimuru to spar with thanks to his new power-up.
As I walked over, I couldn't help but think back to what Luminous had mentioned earlier. Something she clearly wanted to talk with me about but that was seemingly a secret.
The Ten Great Saints were all practicing their magic and swordsmanship as I approached, with Luminous from behind. Luminous looked over her shoulder at me once she detected me, before looking back, not saying anything, and waiting for me to arrive next to her to begin talking.
I decided to be cheeky and walked up behind her and hugged her from behind. "Hey Lume~" I cooed.
Luminous tensed for a second but didn't say anything, although from the slight hint of red in her earlobes, she was slightly embarrassed. Either by my public display of affection or me calling her by her pet name.
"What do you want, Dora?" She muttered under her breath.
I placed my chin on her head and took a deep breath. Luminous smelled like flowers, as usual. "I wanted to ask if it was a good time now?"
Luminous turned her head to look up at me with a slight blush. "We aren't having sex right now. Everyone's got sensory skills that are too wide-range and encompass the entire Barrier. They will see us." She stated.
I blinked, confused for a moment before chuckling. I turned Luminous around and brought her into a proper embrace, kissing her forehead after we broke the hug. "As much as I want to fuck you into next Tuesday, that wasn't what I meant," I stated, ignoring Hinata, who tripped in front of her subordinates after hearing me.
'That's what you get for eavesdropping!' I declared in my mind before putting up a barrier to block out sound.
Luminous, seeing the barrier, shook her head and sighed. "You want to know about the 'other' method of calculating other than an Ultimate Skill, right?"
"Well, it would be nice," I stated with a smirk.
Luminous rolled her eyes and nuzzled into my wide chest for a moment. "It's called a Manas." She stated.
"Manas?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.
Luminous nodded. "Yeah, it's kind of complicated, but basically its a type of information lifeform that lives inside of a person. Due to being an information lifeform, they can run calculations hundreds of times more efficiently than Skills."
I nodded my head. "So... they are a type of soul or skill parasite that helps run calculations?" I asked.
Luminous lightly slapped me. "They aren't parasites... but yes. If you had one, I doubt you'd need to worry about your new power." She explained.
I nodded my head and began to think deeply about it. 'It would be a good idea to have access to something with more calculation power... especially if that'll help me unlock my full power and potential...'
I looked back down at Luminous. "How would one go about gaining a Manas?" I asked her.
Luminous shrugged her shoulders. "The only person I ever knew who had one got it through very... unique circumstances which we can't replicate," Luminous said before growing sour. "My fath-... Twilight had some papers on the subject left over from before I killed him, but it seemed like his work was incomplete... for the most part." She said.
"Mind if I take a look at them?" I asked.
Luminous nodded then waved her hand, using {Spatial Storage} magic to take out the paper. I scanned it with [Faust], activating [Truth of Creation] on it as I did so, allowing me to discover the flaws in the theory while also completing it.
"Say what you want about the guy, but Twilight was a genius when it came to magic and skills... though I'm not so sure about his methods." I explained.
Luminous looked at me, confused for a moment,t before I decided to fill her in. "My Ultimate Skill is called [Faust], and its essence is to reach the Ultimate Truth of the World. I was able to use this information and my Ultimate Skill to finish Twilight's work." I explained.
Luminous stared at me for a moment in shock. "What?" I asked.
"Between you and Rimuru, you both just always keep shocking me." Luminous continued. "No wonder Chronoa loved him and said I'd love you." She muttered the second sentence to herself, but I heard it.
"Do you have some kind of... future prediction knowledge? Or does the Her Chronoa?" I asked.
Luminous sighed. "Chronoa does but that's not important. Just know, without her, we would not be together. Even after you reformed yourself and fixed Nightrose."
I nodded. "I have mixed feelings about her. On one hand, she sealed me for close to 300 years, on the other, she let me meet you, so..." I said.
Luminous smiled but her eyes did not smile. "Oh? Do you have a problem with my precious friend?" She asked, intimidating me.
I rapidly shook my head back and forth. "No! No! No problems here!"
"Good." Luminous said, letting her glare pierce me for another moment before moving on. "So, will you create a manas now?"
I shook my head. "Nope. Twilight's method requires someone with a body like his to be converted into a Manas. Since his body was, for lack of a better word, uncorrupted by monster or elemental factors, he could do it, but those same factors get in the way of the process." I explained.
"It sounds like only humans or Twilight himself can become Manas then." She explained.
"There are probably other ways to do it or get around the factor problem, but at least using this method, yeah, there is only one solution for me," I explained, sighing. "Oh well, I'll just leave this problem on analyze for a while and-"
"Ok, I'll do it." Luminius chimmed in.
"Huh?" I was confused.
"I'll be your Manas," Luminous explained.
"I mean... huh? Is that alright?" I asked her.
Lumionous nodded. "Technically, I am not a Vampire, I am the female alter-ego of Twilight, a replica but with a female gender," she explained. "I never even underwent the Harvest Festival, so I am untainted by the Demon Lord transformation. Using your method, I can become your Manas."
I was shocked. Sure, I knew that Luminous was Twilight's daughter, but I was sure she was at least a True Demon Lord, though the longer I thought about it, the more it made sense. She only had a Unique Skill all this time, despite being at the level of a True Demon Lord. While she was technically a 'Majin', she could also easily wield Holy Power, which Monsters should struggle with since it's toxic to their physiology.
"Are you sure? Becoming a Manas is... its probably going to come with a lot of drawbacks." I explained.
Luminous nodded. "I decided already you are mine. I'm not letting you cheat on me with another Manas." She explained.
"I wouldn't cheat, it wouldn't even have a body or gender so it'd be impossible even if I somehow wanted to, which I don't." I shot back, emphasizing the fact I wouldn't cheat.
Luminous looked me dead in the eye with a frown. "Your Manas would be a female, though, wouldn't it?"
I flinched. It was kinda true. If I were to get a Manas, I'd prefer a female voice in my head forever rather than a man's. Not that gender mattered much to an information lifeform without a body.
"Even if I did choose to have a female voice, it wouldn't have a body," I explained.
"You have that unique clone technique of yours, right?" Luminous asked.
I nodded. The rough idea I had so far was to fix the factor problem and then maybe merge with Makima or something. "Yeah..."
"And you can turn your clones into women, yeah?" Luminous continued.
"Oh. I see where this is going." I stated.
Luminous nodded, as though to say 'no duh!' to me. "Since it has come to this, I shall become your Manas and use [Multiple Existance] to recreate my body at will. It might even be BETTER for me to do this than for you, since my physical body, as a clone of yours, would be equivalent to a True Dragon's in terms of physical abilities while having access to your ridiculous amounts of magicules and having immortality." She explained.
I deadpanned. "Basically, you want to become my Manas to make yourself stronger?" I asked.
Luminous ignored my question and looked me in the eyes. "We ARE going to do this, do you understand?" She explained.
I nodded my head. I wasn't actually all that opposed to the idea, I just thought it was a bit... odd how enthusiastic she was about it.
"Alright, how do we do this?" Luminous asked.
I shook my head. For all her confidence, she didn't even know the method. I hugged Luminous more closely. "Just relax. I'll do the work," I said, activating [Faust] and pouring into it a huge amount of my Magicules and using my innate connection to the laws of the universe as a True Dragon, along with the certain outcome that comes from [Destiny Manipulation] to finish the process.
What I did was take Luminous' soul into my own, tying our essences together in a way not too dissimilar to what a Harvest Festival does.
"What?" I asked before, a pulse of force rippled throughout my entire body.
I took several steps back and braced myself as the world seemed to begin spinning. I was tired for the first time in ages. Sure, I'd slept and napped before this as a True Dragon, but I haven't felt this level of exhaustion since my days as a human.
'Aw hell nah! I'm not going to fall asleep yet, I have to merge with Luminous and make her my Manas without hurting her soul!' I thought in protest as I controlled the rampaging energy from inside me.
I took a deep breath and began to condense and seal the excess energy from within me using a technique I remember Velzard once tried to teach me. This was before she started killing me on repeat until I had a personality she could tolerate. This technique was originally used by her to condense her form even more than the regular human transformation, so that she could fight weaker opponents without using her full strength.
I didn't put two-and-two together until just now, but the form she was always showing me, the one where she is a young girl, was probably that one.
'And she STILL one-shots me. She must have some kind of special energy too, like I have and Milim and Big Brother had... I wonder if Velgrynd knows... never mind, thoughts for later! Focus on the transformation!' I thought as I was condensing my energy even further.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the process stopped. I looked around and saw that the world looked... off. Like that, everything was slightly bigger than it was before.
<
'Whoah, that's trippy. Luminous, can you hear me?' I asked in my head.
I could somehow feel Luminous rolling her eyes at me. <
'I have no clue... also, my hair and eyes have... was this your doing?' I asked.
<
I rolled my now heterochromatic eyes and continued with my inspection of myself. Yes, I was smaller and looked like a young boy, but my strength was still rather large. My EP in this form was around 44 million, slightly superior to Guy's, though a bit less than half of my actual strength. This would actually be a good form for sparing with Milim or Rimuru in.
I then called out to my skills-
<
'Why not?' I asked her.
<
I raised my eyebrow. 'Reorganize? I guess, how long do you think it'll take you? I really want to test my Skills, especially the one that gives you back your body.' I explained.
I felt Luminous shrug. <>
'An odd analogy.' I quipped.
<
I shook my head. 'I really don't understand, but I guess I'll go talk to everyone else and explain the situation to them.' I thought as I realized the Ten Great Saints, Milim, and Rimuru were all coming towards me, looking confused.
'I wish real-life had a 'skip cutscene' button, since I know this is going to be awkward.' I bemoaned.
I felt Luminous become smug. <
'Oy!' I yelled back, somewhat annoyed.
.~.~.~.
AN: This chapter is a bit rushed, so I'm sorry if the quality was a bit lack-luster. I REALLY want to get onto the fights in this Arc and then move onto the next Arc, which will be the final saga combining the Easter Empire Invasion with the Final Tenma War.
Check the Character Page for Veldora's suppressed look.