Chapter 245 Decisive Battle at the Summit Part 6

What in the world are they doing...?

Just as I thought this,

"No, nooo... Power, my has power depleted just at the final moment..."

Veldora vehemently said as if to excuse what had happened.

It seemed that he was alright after all.

Though, I didn't feel like mustering up the least bit of concern for him. And that couldn't be helped after seeing his everyday words and actions.

He looked terrible, but it did not seem too serious.

Of course, it wasn't. After all, while it was a huge explosion, it appears that Veldora was the only one who took any damage from it.

No one else looked like they had been harmed, which was a relief.

Well, there was a strange sense of comfort in knowing that Veldora would be fine even if he did happen to be badly injured.

And it would not be an exaggeration to say that the main body is inside of me.

"What are you doing? Weren't you bragging about how you were fine?"

"Hmph, that's what I was about to say! I was going to push through by brute force, so why would you suddenly close the "Corridor"!?"

I asked with a sigh, and Veldora retorted as if in a tantrum.

Corridor... Did he mean the "Soul Corridor"?

[Hehe. Veldora has been the most wasteful when it comes to draining your mana. I wanted to punish him a little, so I calculated it to run wild just enough that he alone would be dealt some damage. And then I closed the "Soul Corridor" at the best possible timing.]

You What!?

Also, for some reason, Ciel seemed to be very angry.

She said she had been allowing him to use it freely in a previous conversation, so what was this sudden change of att.i.tude...

[In the first place, I was suppressing the use of energy so as not to waste it. And yet, that Veldor ]

"I saw you absorbing energy and thought I would copy it! And I was so close to being able to completely power up."

"No, no. I don't think so..."

This is what it meant to be utterly exasperated.

I wouldn't tell him to never copy others, but I would appreciate it if he didn't use such a stressful situation as this to try and test something he was clearly bound to fail with.

First of all, Veldora didn't even have the ability to convert energy, so how would he even power up...

It was almost impressive that he could fail such a simple job as just normally suppressing it for a counterbalance.

Veldora had controlled it with strength alone. He must have drawn ma.s.sive amounts of energy from me and attempted to merge it.

Through doing that, he could forcefully alter the energy he was holding and a.s.similate it.

[Not only that. He tried to use the "Soul Corridor" to draw energy, as the merging was not working well. His strategy must have been to recycle it instead of powering up.]

I see...

I'm sure that Ciel at least, would not have had a problem processing it, but having strange things sent in could become dangerous if it turned into a habit.

She would conveniently end up being a.s.signed to a processing position whenever there was trouble. So she was right to reject it.

He forced it on her because he wasn't able to process it himself, and then runs off with all the energy he wants.

It was no surprise that she would blow a fuse.

That's why she had Veldora raked over the coals like this.

She had done it at a time when his guard was down, so even Veldora was not able to handle it.

Well, he too was probably waiting for a moment where Ciel wouldn't be able to handle it.

I was very surprised that such an idiotic offensive and defensive battle was happening without me knowing it.

"It's your fault no matter how you look at it!"

"Grrr... It's not fair that only Rimuru can use such useful abilities..."

Don't grrr at me. Are you a child!

Well, nevermind. This idiocy was being witnessed by enough people.

"Veldora, you-"

See.

Can you not see Velgrynd, resting her sword on her shoulder and glaring this way through half-open eyes?

Velzado is smiling, but her eyes tell a different, a frightening story.

I say as much to Veldora through eye contact.

Aah! Veldora's face seemed to say as it turned most miserable.

It seemed that he finally realized that he had gotten carried away. He was looking back and forth between me and his two sisters with a fl.u.s.tered expression.

"Well, you need practice. I'm sure even you will be able to use it if you try hard enough. You have to take it slowly. But first things first, you must help us defeat Velda."

I decided to send Veldora a little lifeboat.

Part of it was because it would be annoying if he decided to sulk now, but I also felt bad seeing him quaking like this in front of his sisters.

And so I acted as if this was all according to our plans and there was just a little mishap.

"Ha, hahaha. Indeed, it seems that I was just a little overconfident in myself. One should always stay modest. Good. Now, I will go back inside of you and help you!"

Veldora said in a boastful manner, then went back inside of me as if running away.

He owed me one.