Slime Soul (Tensura x Bleach Crossover) (Patreon)

Chapter 22: A Brief Respite

Several Months Later

“Hah, time sure flies, huh?” I muttered to myself while sitting on the edge of a skyscraper overlooking the city of London in Britain.

It had been about seven months since we left Hueco Mundo for the World of the Living. During that time, instead of immediately heading west to London and the West Branch of the Soul Society, we had taken our sweet time getting there and explored the world along the way.

Thanks to my naming, all the Arrancar now had physical bodies that allowed them to interact with the World of the Living without needing a Gigai. It had taken the former Espada some time to get used to their new power so they wouldn’t affect the world around them with their spiritual pressure, Starrk being the main example.

Thankfully, thanks to those handy cloaks I had borrowed from Aizen, that hadn’t been much of a problem.

Speaking of the former Espada, after the naming ceremony finally completed, both Tier and Starrk had evolved past Hollows just like Nelliel had and become something else. Tier, like Nelliel before her, had become a Death Paladin, a type of undead death spirit, while Starrk had become a Death Lord, a subspecies of a Paladin.

Both of them had become monstrously stronger than their previous selves, which had depressed Starrk for a while until Lilynette managed to knock him out of his funk with a bit of loving violence. Thanks to her, I didn’t have to deal with Starrk’s shenanigans, which I was very thankful for.

As for Tier’s subordinates, they had not been too happy when they first discovered their master now served me, and that they did by default as well. They made their complaints known very loudly.

Thankfully, both Nelliel and Tier stepped in quickly and put a stop to that, with the latter sternly reprimanding her subordinates for being rude to their savior.

Just in time too, because Nelliel didn’t look too happy about the insults being hurled my way. It was actually my first time seeing Nelliel look angry, which surprised me considering her usual personality.

With that issue resolved, we went on our way after I named them and left Hueco Mundo.

We headed west and left Japan, which was under the watchful eye of the Shinigami, and landed in China before slowly making our way toward London. I figured there was no real rush to get there, so with everyone’s approval we decided to take the opportunity to explore the world to our hearts’ content.

Since money was required to eat and for many other things in the World of the Living, though we technically didn’t need to eat anymore, we might have gone after a few mafia lords, gangs, and self-proclaimed terrorists along the way and robbed them blind after destroying them.

I figured nobody would really miss them, so we helped ourselves to some… or maybe a lot… of their cash.

Thinking about the future, I mostly confiscated their material wealth instead of the paper currency, since once we left this world that money would become worthless.

I might have also sneaked into a few heavily fortified compounds and relieved them of some of their gold before leaving without anyone noticing.

Upon reaching London about a month ago, Astra and I immediately went to work searching for the strongest beings here while I instructed the others to find somewhere for us to stay.

Upon my first encounter with these so-called Dragons that lived in this region, there was only one emotion I felt as I looked at their appearance.

Complete disappointment.

The “dragons” that lived here only had three categories of appearance: cute, weird, and ugly.

The cute ones were mostly used as livestock or for other mundane purposes. The weird ones fit into the same category for the most part, while the weird and ugly ones were mostly the so-called Dark Dragons, the ones that posed a problem for the populace.

The problem was that with how much I had grown lately, what the people here considered strong looked like complete weaklings to me.

Not worth my time.

Where was the majestic looking creatures I recall reading enthusiastically from my fragmented memories? Where was the pride in the dragons?

These things displayed none of that.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from searching out the strongest ones I could find and devouring them. Like I had already predicted, I didn’t get anything particularly good from them, other than gaining some very cool looking dragon wings that I could summon from my back, just like the original Rimuru had been able to do.

Even the most ancient and strongest of their kind, called Märchen by the local populace, had proven to be a disappointment. Other than a stealth technique — which, mind you, I could already use and one far stronger than what those stupid creatures had — I got nothing else from them.

At least some of them had been surprisingly tasty though, apparently considered a delicacy from what I heard.

“What do you think, Astra? Should we call it quits and move on? I don’t think we’ll be able to find anything interesting left in this stupid city other than what we already found.” I asked my ever-present and lovely companion who had been with me from the start.

“That seems to be the case. To think humans would call those things dragons of all things… what a farce.” Astra said with a disappointed tone.

Now that I thought about it, Astra was probably even more disappointed than I was, considering she was a bit of a skill maniac and hoarder.

“Astra is not a skill maniac.” Astra immediately responded with a pout in her voice, causing me to chuckle in amusement as her next words directly contradicted her. “By the way, Caius-sama, it is now possible for me to combine Lord of Wisdom and Lord of Gluttony into a brand new skill.” She said, sounding both smug and excited.

“And you’re not a skill maniac, huh?” I said with a smile before standing up and stretching, not because I needed to, but out of habit, letting out a small sigh as I breathed in the humid air while thinking about her words.

“Azathoth, huh? To be honest, I didn’t think you would be able to do this so soon. I’m beyond impressed, Astra.” I praised while looking up at the cloudy sky in thought, smiling slightly as I felt Astra grow even more smug at my words.

“With Astra’s evolution into a Manas after being named by Caius-sama, there is now truly nothing Astra can’t answer and no skill she can’t replicate or modify.” Astra said with a haughty tone.

“Hmhmhm, you’ve even gotten more cheeky lately.” I said with a smile at the astounding amount of growth Astra had displayed as an individual ever since she awakened her ego with the name I gave her.

“I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating.” I continued with a soft smile as I mentally hugged my cute Manas. “I truly am the luckiest guy, slime, in the universe to have you with me, Astra.”

My comment caused Astra to become embarrassed as she stayed silent, making my smile widen before I shook my head and got back on track.

“Anyway, I have a question for you before you do anything.” I said, grabbing her attention. “Will you be able to modify the skill later on? Since we don’t have all the abilities Rimuru originally had right now, nor am I a True Dragon, and I won’t be able to become one until we reach the Cardinal World.” I asked curiously.

What my question really came down to was…

“Wouldn’t it be better for us to wait until I become a True Dragon so the skill will be more powerful? There’s also the matter of the massive amount of energy we would need to create Azathoth.”

Astra stayed silent for a moment before responding.

“Caius-sama is correct. While it is possible to combine those skills right now, it would leave Caius-sama somewhat weakened. And to answer his question, it is indeed possible for Astra to modify your skills later.” She said a bit reluctantly, almost sounding like a child who had just been told she couldn’t have cookies for dinner.

“Don’t worry, partner.” I reassured her, sending another mental hug that immediately snapped her out of her mood. “I know you’re just trying your best for me, and I appreciate it a lot. But we lose nothing by waiting a little longer while you gather more data to make the skill even stronger, right?” I encouraged with a mental nudge.

“…Right.”

“Besides, this way if you do end up making Azathoth stronger than the original, which I completely believe you can, we can take satisfaction in knowing that my Astra is much better than Rimuru’s Ciel.” I said with a grin.

All I received in response were flustered noises for a moment, causing my smile to grow even wider.

“Of course Astra is much better than that troublemaker, Ciel. Caius-sama is also infinitely better than the Rimuru Astra saw in your memories.” She said shyly before going quiet again and retreating deeper into the back of my mind.

“Hmhmhm, why thank you, my lovely Astra~” I replied, knowing she was still listening. “Now it’s best we leave this place. There’s one place I want to visit before I drop in on Ichigo. I think it’s time to see what that idiot has been up to.”

With that said, I suddenly disappeared with Instant Motion, as if I had never been there at all.

=====

A Few Months Later — Karakura Town — Six Months Before Fullbring Arc Begins

“I can’t believe we’re back here.” A young feminine voice said dryly. “Won’t we draw the attention of the Shinigami?”

“I can’t say I feel comfortable being here either, but luckily we won’t be staying for too long.” A soft and mature feminine voice answered.

Turning my head away from the view of the city through the full-length window of the suite I had rented for everyone thanks to some light mind manipulation, I came face to face with Lilynette and Tier Harribel, who were lounging on the living room couches while drinking something.

Similar to Nelliel, neither of the two girls had Hollow masks anymore, nor Hollow holes, leaving their unblemished faces fully visible.

Lilynette, even while not being as strong as Tier or Nelliel, was still considered a part of Starrk, so she had benefited from his evolution as well. As a result, she had evolved alongside him and become much stronger.

At the moment she was even stronger than Tier’s subordinates, something the girl loved to tease them about to their constant annoyance.

As for the lazy ass, he was of course already asleep in one of the many bedrooms of the suite.

“It’s like Tier said. We’ll only be here for a few days at most, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Thanks to the special bodies I made for Tier and Nel’s subordinates to inhabit, much like a Gigai, we should be practically invisible to anyone important.” I explained calmly while leaning my back against the window and crossing my arms.

“I still can’t believe you’re able to make bodies like that out of some special metal you mutated. Your abilities never cease to surprise me, Caius~” Nelliel’s soft voice came from beside me where she stood next to the window.

During our trip around half the world, I had taken it upon myself to get my hands on as much and as many types of ore as possible before storing them in my Infinity Space, where they were constantly saturated with my magicules.

Over time, the simple ore transformed into materials that could normally only be found in the Central World.

At the moment I had ample amounts of Magisteel, Adamantite—which was basically Magisteel exposed to an intense concentration of my magicules—Mithril, which was created by combining silver and Magisteel, and finally Orichalcum, which was made by combining gold and Magisteel.

Using some Orichalcum, I had been able to create bodies for Nelliel and Tier’s subordinates so they could inhabit them and have physical forms.

It also had the added benefit of making them far tougher than before.

At the moment those same subordinates were out in the city buying groceries for us.

During our time in the World of the Living, all of us had developed quite a liking for regular food, and now we were hooked.

Modern food was delicious after all, and we had managed to sample it from nearly half the world during our travels.

As for the duty of cooking, that had fallen to Tier and Nelliel, who had taken it upon themselves to learn how to cook. While the first few weeks were kind of rough, they eventually improved, and now they were both pretty decent cooks, with Nelliel having a slight lead on the tanned blonde.

“It’s nothing really,” I shrugged humbly, not really thinking what I had done was anything special. “Things like that are kind of the norm in the Cardinal World.” I admitted freely, causing Nelliel to only shake her head and look at me fondly.

“Speaking of the Cardinal World, have you made any progress?” Tier asked curiously, tilting her head slightly as she gazed at me calmly.

I didn’t answer immediately, silently admiring how beautiful the blonde looked before regaining my senses.

“I’m afraid not.” I said, letting out a small sigh.

“While I’m now capable of passing the dimensional wall that surrounds this universe, I haven’t been able to obtain the coordinates for the Cardinal World. Hah… we might have to risk it and travel to another world first. Problem is the world will be completely random.” I revealed with a slight frown.

Astra had been working relentlessly, and I obviously didn’t blame her, but she still hadn’t been able to make any progress on finding the exact coordinates for the Cardinal World.

“I apologize, Caius-sama. But with no true direction, I cannot pinpoint the exact coordinates. It might be possible to obtain better readings once we have successfully passed the dimensional barrier.” Astra apologized inside my mind, sounding truly regretful.

‘Like I already said, partner, don’t worry about it. As with everything we’ve done so far since arriving here, we just have to keep moving forward.’ I reassured my depressed Manas.

“Thank you for your belief in me, Caius-sama. I won’t let you down.” Astra replied with a determined tone.

‘You never have.’ I answered with a smile before turning my attention back to the others, only to find them wearing thoughtful expressions.

“It might not be so bad to explore another world, if I’m being honest~” Nelliel muttered, enthusiasm beginning to show in her voice as her eyes brightened, lifting the mood.

“Wahaha, yes, you’re right, Nel~” I couldn’t help but laugh in agreement as I smiled at her. “Here I am feeling depressed without even realizing that this opportunity doesn’t come to just anyone. Even if we don’t reach the Cardinal World on the first try, we can always try again, and in the process experience other worlds.”

“That’s the spirit, Caius!” Lilynette shouted excitedly in support.

“I am curious to see how different the worlds we might travel to will be compared to our own.” Tier added quietly, the slightest hint of a smile appearing on her lips.

At that moment, the door to our suite was abruptly opened before loud arguing reached our ears, letting us know that Tier’s rowdy subordinates—along with Nelliel’s—had arrived.

“We’re back, Harribel-sama~” a boisterous voice called out, belonging to none other than Emilou Apacci.

“Excuse us for taking so long, Harribel-sama, Caius-sama. These two got into an argument with the clerk.” A softer voice spoke with a hint of sass, belonging to Cyan Sung-Sun.

“Shut up, Sung-Sun!” a third brash voice shouted back, belonging to Franceska Mila Rose.

Watching the scene unfold, I couldn’t help but smile in amusement.

‘Those three are like a pair of cats and dogs. Never a boring day with them.’