Ifrit was really gunning for it. He dashed through the air at subsonic speeds, making a break for the forest's edge, outside of Veldora's territory. He gazed behind him to see a large Tempest Star Wolf running after him, running on the air, somehow, with the annoying slime riding his back and firing off Ice Magic at him.
Ifrit clicked his tongue, "Annoying pest!" He yelled out as he stopped and summoned his Salamaders. He'd just have to eliminate the problem here and now before escaping. His window of opportunity was small. If he didn't escape by the time Veldora came back, he'd never make it.
"I said stop, damn it!" Rimuru cried out as he and Ranga finally caught up.
"Hmp!" Ifrit snorted and looked down on the slime, pointing the Salamanders towards him to attack.
"{Icicle Shotgun}!" Rimuru called out, shooting a buckshot of ice spears which instantly impaled and defeated most of the Salamanders.
"Awooo!!!" Ranga howled and charged at Ifrit who pulled out Shizue's sword and deflected Ranga's claw swipe. Ifrit then kicked the large wolf with all his strength, sending it flying, before following up with a large Fireball spell which he launched at Ranga.
"[Predator]!" Rimuru called out, jumping into the pathway of the fireball and swallowing it whole.
Rimuru, while still in mid-air, then began to spin his slimy form and extended a tendril at Ifrit, who attempted to burn it away, only for it to be immune.
The moment later, the tendril spat out [Sticky-Steel Thread] and caught the fleeing Elemental. The shock on Ifrit's face for the few moments before his world darkened by being eaten by Rimuru's [Predator] was priceless.
A few moments passed as Rimuru digested Ifrit and then spit out Shizue onto the ground, having separated the two of them.
"Shizu!" He called out and hopped over to her with Ranga trailing behind him.
"I got her." I said, emerging from my hiding spot and picking up Shizu with a princess carry. Rimuru wasted no time and immediately jumped onto my head and dropped a few healing potions onto her from there.
Her body, which had been partially burned, was now fully healed; however, it was her spirit that needed to be healed, not her wounds. She was too low on vitality, and her spiritual body had a whole shot through it from where Ifrit had emerged. If Shizu wasn't already in the process of becoming a demonoid majin, this fact alone would have killed her instantly.
I stood near Ranga and activated a Spatial Transfer ability using [Space-Time Domination] to teleport us back to the village.
The place was a wreck. While the fires had long since been put out, the collapsed wood buildings and tents would still need to be repaired and reconstructed. I spotted the various Redcaps and Star Wolves around, all doing their part to help out, and smiled, as many were using the magic I'd taught them to make the cleanup and repairs easier.
"Miss Shizu!" Eren called out as she ran up to her, followed by a weary Gudo and Kaval.
"She needs to rest," I said, walking toward the tent that used to be where I stayed the night. It was burned quite thoroughly. Obviously, Ifrit had targeted it specifically, probably in annoyance at the inconvenience I caused him.
Thankfully, I had recently had a lot of experience repairing damaged structures, so with a quick snap of my fingers, it was standing again. I ignored the shocked looks of awe the others gave as I went inside and placed Shizu on my bed. Physically, she looked fine, but the strain on her spirit could be sensed with the naked eye. Something was off with her. She looked more frail, but not necessarily any older... yet.
I turned to Rimuru and the others. "I'll take care of things in the Village, you stay here."
Rimuru and the lot all nodded, not bothering to rebuff me as I turned around and walked out of the door.
I spent the rest of the afternoon repairing the village with my abilities. I received and gave updates to Rigurd and some of the other Goblins and had them imprison the still unconscious Tear and Footman. I'd placed a spell that locked their minds, so they were basically catatonic and easy enough to contain.
Everything was over by the evening, and the Monsters of Tempest were able to go about their night like it was any other. I taught my class in the evening and kept my guard up. The body in Tempest wasn't doing so bad, though that was nothing compared to my other body.
The night was peaceful, but the next day was certainly not.
..
I turned toward Hinata, giving her a stern look. "Remember, these are MY subordinates and MY people. I will not tolerate you attacking them unprovoked." I cautioned.
Hinata narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Fine, just let me see Miss Shizue." She declared.
Luminous gave me a look that showed how unhappy she was with my warning, but didn't say anything. She probably knew how zealous Hinata was, and despite never personally writing in her Holy Script that humanity should be fundamentally anti-monster, it was still the de facto stance of the Holy Church that Monsters were to be eliminated, so Hinata being surrounded by powerful monsters was likely to put her on edge already, especially since she was going to literally be saying her final farewells to her dying teacher.
I nodded, saying nothing more and teleporting us all to a pre-prepared space near the outskirts of the village. It wasn't fancy, just a small stone platform with a magic circle onboard. I was inspired by the teleporter pads from Aincrad in SAO that they used to go from one level to another.
Hinata blinked, clearly not expecting what just happened, but quickly composed herself. I gestured silently and began leading the way. As we walked through the village, the villagers all stopped to stare at Luminous and Hinata as they walked by, and from how much Hinata was scanning the area, she was obviously assessing threats and the like. Luminous, on the other hand, appeared to be simply walking after us, her head straight but her eyes closed as though she was totally over this charade.
I felt that in my bones. If the final Volume hadn't revealed Rimuru to be Shizue's Grandmother, we could have skipped this entire thing, but now, since I had to prevent the paradox of Rimuru's birth, we had to follow canon... though we wouldn't be doing that for long after this.
"Lord Veldora, who are they?" Gobta asked as he walked up to us, the others were obviously listening in.
I turned and introduced them both. "These are Hinata Sakaguchi, a student of Shizu, and Luminous. My girlfriend." I stated.
"Wha-!?!" Luminous blushed brightly as Hinata's eyes widened as she looked between Luminous and I with a chocked expression.
"""EEEEHHHHHHHHH!?!?!?!""" Everyone yelled at the same time while I lightly laughed.
I caught Nightrose as Luminous attempted to slash me with it. "Y-y-y-YOU LIZARD!!!" She cried out, embarassment writen all over her face as it was flushed and her flustered swinging continued.
To be honest, I did that to tease her, but with how she responded, everyone was now looking at her with knowing eyes thinking... "Tsundere?" Hinata asked out loud what everyone was thinking.
"Wh-wait! Hinata! Its not like that!!!" Luminous stopped her tsun attack and was now embarrassingly trying to explain.
I picked up Luminous into a princess carry. "Alright everyone, let's cut her some slack, she's obviously very shy. We also have to bring Hinata here to see Shizu." I said as I began walking while Luminous' face burned a bright red and she hid her face in her hands, muttering about me being 'Nothing but a stupid lizard' and the like.
We left the crowd to gossip as we made our way to my tent. Eren, Kaval, and Gudo had already left after saying their final words. Eren was crying and my other body was at the doorway, holding it open.
The earlier break in tension from my teasing of Luminous was now gone. The somber atmosphere returned.
"She's inside. Not much time life." I said, pointing.
Hinata nodded her head and walked past my other body. Rimuru was in the room with Shizu, pumping her full of Full Potions to keep her in the living world. When I mentioned bringing Hinata here, Shizu found the strength to hold on for a bit longer, but it was obvious she wouldn't survive the night. She was already rapidly aging, most of her hair was grey and her arms were now frail.
My other body closed the door and merged back into me. I hadn't spent a lot of time with Shizu, and I didn't need her to feel pressured by my presence.
I sighed. "Feeling powerless are you?" Luminous stated.
"Yeah. Sucks that I need to do stuff like this to ensure nothing goes wrong." I bemoaned.
"I too, am feeling a feeling of powerlessness, though for different reasons." Luminous stated flatly.
I blushed a bit and was taken aback by her bluntness. "Sorry." I said, gently letting Luminous down.
"Hmp! Well, I'll forgive you this time, but only because you are going to tell me everything." She stated, dusting off her dress.
I nodded. "Were to begin...?" I asked.
"The beginning would be nice." Luminous pointed out.
I sighed. "So God is back." I said.
Luminous rolled her eyes. "Obviously, I'm standing here, aren't I."
I didn't say anything and gave her a look. It took her a second before her eyes went wide. "Wait... you mean Lord Veldanava..." She almost whispered.
I nodded. "Let's just say he isn't exactly thrilled with the state of the world." I said.
Luminous began to pace back and forth, chewing on her thumb nail. "If that is the case, the structure of power in this world is going to be shaken up... also, this will fracture my followers." She began listing of a number of issues.
"He wants the world to be destroyed." I finished which caused her to stop pacing and go pale.
"Not even Guy or Milim can stand up to Veldanava. Noone can." She said with a horrified look on her face.
I closed my eyes. "There is one who could."
Luminous looked at me and narrowed her eyes. "You are strong, but not even you-"
"Rimuru," I stated.
Luminous said nothing for a moment. "The slime?" She said with incredulity.
I nodded. "Obviously not as he is now, but through a series of future events, he will become the most powerful Demon Lord in the near future. I'm talking the next 5 years."
Luminous sighed. "Now I understand why Chloe... nevermind." She tried to hide it, but I didn't bother.
"Listen. I need certain events to play out in certain ways for this to work. It was due to no small amount of luck that Rimuru got to where he needed to be; however, we can still prevent the worst of the unnecessary stuff if we use my future knowledge. We can't stop my elder brother, but we CAN ensure we survive him." I explained.
Luminous looked at me wearily. "What is your plan?"
I smirked. "The first step is to upgrade your Skill to the Ultimate Level." I mentioned.
"You mentioned that before, any particular reason why?" She asked.
"Because the second step is going to be to get your memories back." I explained.
"Memories?" She asked, confused.
"Twilight is alive," I admitted, which froze her solid.
"How?" She asked.
"He faked his death and was saved by Velzard. My sister." I explained.
Luminous's eyes narrowed, and the air around her went cold as her Demon Lord Haki began to leak out. Cold fury was all she was radiating. "Tell me more."
I nodded.
...
(3rd POV)
Shizue Izawa lay on the comfortable bed, breathing labored with her age.
Hinata was on her knees with tears in her eyes. She was clearly frustrated and hurting. She'd just heard Shizu finish her life story, including the parts she'd never told her about before. She'd been apologizing over and over for the past few minutes. After hearing about how Shizu was losing control over Ifrit and how she'd been left by the Hero, she couldn't cope with the guilt of abandoning Shizue as she had. The guilt was eating away at her now, and even as Shizue's hand carefully caressed her cheek and calmed Hinata down, the frustrated tears never fully stopped.
Shizu smiled and looked to Rimuru. "I'm sorry to be leaving all of this to you." She stated.
Rimuru shook his slimy body. "No... its fine. You just rest alright." He assured her.
Shizu smiled.
There was a long few minutes of nothing being said but the tension never really left the room.
"Slime-san... when I go... Can I ask you one last thing?" Shizu askedd.
Rimuru nodded. "Anything, Shizu-san!"
Shizu smiled weakly. "It isn't something nice though..." She said.
Rimuru shook his head. "Its fine. I'll do anything you need me to. You've entrusted me with your wishes already after all."
Shizu took a moment to drink in that statement before "Please... eat me."
Hinata stopped crying and looked up in shock, staring at Shizu. Rimuru was also visibly taken aback but before either could protest.
"Just like you ate the curse that had been cast on me... That made me so happy." She stated.
"But for him to eat you..." Hinata weakly protested.
Shizu smiled once again and raised her hand, tenderly stroking Hinata's cheek and wiping away a tear. She looked up at the ceiling and continued.
"I dislike this world... still, I can't abhor it. Just like that man, so... I don't want to be absorbed by this world." She stated.
Hinata began to cry again, but this time, no hand came up to comfort her.
"But..." Rimuru wanted to protest but after a moment.
"This is her last request..." Hinata stated, still looking at the floor as though to hide the tears in her eyes from her sadness. She then looked up and at Rimuru. "Please... don't let her rest in this world."
Rimuru looked at Hinata for a moment before turning to look at Shizu. "Would you... let me rest inside you?"
.
.
.
"Ok," Rimuru replied.
Shizu's eyes began to tear up, and a sense of relief washed over her whole body, as though the last of her will to remain here had given up.
"Thank... you..." She finished
And then she was gone.