And so when something of another level appeared, he was unable to process it.

No.

Perhaps his instincts did realize it. However, he was in denial.

After all, Kristoph was supposed to be the greatest work of the genius Almsbine.

And so he continued to judge things by what he knew.

And he challenged Veldora once again.

“Nonsense! Don’t you dare think that you’ve beaten me with that level of skill!”

Kristoph shouted. He was risking everything based on his reputation.

However, it would not pay off.

“Dragon PUUUUUUUUNCH!!”

Veldora allowed much of the force to weaken as his fist slammed into Kristoph.

And yet, in front of such a fist, Kristoph’s Ether Ring Barrier was meaningless.

It broke in an instant. And the impact caused Kristoph’s body to go numb.

His rising energy had no place to go and began to disperse into the air.

“No…it can’t be…”

Kristoph could not admit defeat. He meant to fight as a warrior until the end.

However, his timing was bad.

Veldora had already lost all interest in him.

After all, Fudora had just opened the door.

—The door to destruction.

Veldora’s instincts told him of this.

He had had a bad feeling the moment that Michelle’s energy began to rise rapidly.

That’s why he knew that this was no time to be playing. It was an emergency and Veldora sensed danger.

“Sorry. It seems something has happened with Michelle. So I don’t have time to play with you anymore. Maybe next time. I suggest you train a little more!”

Veldora said with a boisterous laugh. And with that, he and Ramiris left.

Kristoph remained…

“He-hehehe… Surely not. They couldn’t really have lost interest… But he was strong… Is he human? No, more important, I…”

Confused, troubled, he thought.

He was so disturbed that he could not stand up.

Veldora’s attack had freed him from what control Fudora had over his body that had been printed into his instincts.

But it would take a little while longer for Kristoph to realize this…

◆◆◆

Veldora reached Michelle in a single jump.

It was an emergency, and so he did not hold back.

He used ‘Teleportation’ without hesitation.

But he almost regretted what he saw once he arrived.

“…Master. This looks really bad!”

“I know, Ramiris. There is nothing I can do now. Let’s leave and pretend like we didn’t see anything.”

“But, wouldn’t that mean abandoning, Zaza, Sharma, Rindo, the children, Karman and everyone we met in this world? We can save ourselves, but I don’t want to abandon them as well!”

“Hmm. Yes… However, there really is nothing…”

“Even you can’t do anything, Master?”

“I can’t. After all…”

After all, the scene in front of them was very appropriate for signaling the end of the world.

Alvin was making a desperate attempt to neutralize the energy that flowed out of Michelle. Fudora’s eyes bulged, blood-shot as he attempted to control it.

Neither of them even noticed that Veldora and Ramiris were there.

Veldora understood what was happening at a glance.

His reading had revealed that Michelle had more energy than Beretta, and now it was all being released.

But what was more dangerous…

(To think it would be this bad. I hadn’t been able to read the power reactor, but it seems different in principle from the others. This isn’t a sun. Once a sun’s life is exhausted, it becomes a supernova—no, collapsar? The energy that is being discharged is immense, but what is most dangerous, is the speed at which it absorbs the matter surrounding it…)

—This is bad, Veldora thought.

It wouldn’t be impossible to nullify the leaking energy, but it would be hard to stop the power that was absorbing things.

If he waited until the collapsar was satisfied, it might eventually stabilize. However, that was only if there was a single collapsar.

But Veldora’s eyes caught two of them, and they were growing larger at an alarming rate.

One of them was sucking the substances in, while the other unleashed pure energy.

In other words, it would never be satisfied. It reminded him of Beelzebuth and its insatiable ‘stomach’…

“…Because it’s like Rimuru’s power?”

“Exactly.”

Ramiris found the answer, and Veldora nodded.

“What will you do? If this continues, everyone will…”

Veldora could not immediately answer her question.

Had he seriously wanted to neutralize it, he would be able to buy them quite a lot of time.

However, any other methods—for instance, isolating it with a barrier… It would still be difficult to control this much energy.

Eventually, it would break through, and the world would be destroyed.

After all, this was on a different level.

While it was fine now, if left alone, this was bad enough to swallow up the entire universe.

“Oh, well… I don’t feel like it, but I’ll do what I can to stop it.”

“Are you sure, Master?”

“I have no choice but to try.”

There was no option that included leaving things as they were.

Yes, he had talked about running away, but he would have done so by now, had he really meant it.

Veldora was fond of the people here who lived so desperately.

The arrogant Zaza and the brazen-faced Karman.

Serious Rindo and surprisingly tough Sharma.

The children, who never despaired regardless of the situation.

Veldora would never abandon such lovable people.

Perhaps their meeting had only been a coincidence, but there must be some meaning to it.

Even a chance meeting is due to fate–There was no difference between coincidence and the inevitable to Veldora.

He would succeed if he was going to do it at all.

Veldora’s pride would not permit failure.

And so Veldora decided to use whatever he could.

“It will stabilize if you can succeed in neutralizing it while I hold it back. Are you listening to me, humans? I don’t really want to, but I will help you this one time. It must be tuned speedily and completely so the size of the Mobius is identical!!”