Note: I highly recommend reading the author's thoughts at the end of the chapter as they will clarify any doubts you may have. There are several differences I've changed in the other timeline, and understanding the information provided in the author's thoughts section will greatly help in understanding the timelines and other related details.
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'From Previous Chapter:'
Well, who could have thought that existence would be this vast, yet just a fraction of the Void.
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>>Bring them here. Life has been rather dull lately, and this could be interesting.<<
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As I stood outside my house, just as I instructed Ciel to bring that person here, a woman appeared.
"Sensei, is that you?" the person asked.
'Continuation Rimuru POV:'
This will be interesting.
So, hmm... this person is a woman, huh? Well, she does look strong for a normal human. No, she is a Divine Human, meaning she has evolved into a True Hero. But still, she seems pretty strong for a True Hero, almost as strong as current Rudra with [Micheal], but still with [Uriel], he would have defeated her without much problem. And why does she have two souls within her?
>>Can you please explain, Ciel?<<
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>>Well, you are right. It will be interesting to uncover this on my own. And I have a feeling that you are behind all of this, am I correct?<<
>>Perhaps. But you also desired some entertainment in your life, didn't you, master? That's why I altered some things and made our future intresting. No more spoilers for you.<<
<
Oh, it seems she's finally going to say something.
"Sensei, is that you?" The person asked me.
Ehhhhh..... Ehhhhhhhh.....
Whoa....what is she saying???? What does she mean by sensei???
Could it be that she is a student of my other variant from a different timeline? But that would be impossible because I am an Omnipresent being, so it is impossible for me to have any variant in any timeline??
Omnipresence means being everywhere at the same time and nowhere simultaneously. Thus, the concept of variants or alternate versions of oneself is inconceivable.
So what is going on here????
"It's not nice to ask about someone before introducing ourselves, so please can you tell me who you are?" I asked her.
Well, I need to know who she is first. Because even though I can't see her because of her mask, I am getting a feeling that now she is on the verge of crying.
"Tell me your name, who you are?" She asked me again but this time with some coldness in it.
It feels like now she is a completely different person.
I don't think telling her my name will be any problem.
"Fine, if you want to know that much about me, then let me introduce myself. I am The King of All Existence, I am The Chaos Creator, I am The Embodiment of Nothingness: The Ruler Of Void: Rimuru Tempest!!" I introduced myself while spreading my draconic wings.
"??? POV:"
I was just about to help Sensei, but that Feldway guy killed him. If only I had been a little earlier, I could have saved Sensei.
But no matter what, I will save Sensei! I just need to go back in time and start from the beginning again, and this time I will save Sensei!!!
It seems that Hinata-nee has also died. I should take her soul too. This way, everything will go as it did before.
Okay, now let's go back. I will save you this time, Sensei!!!
Huh... Why isn't anything happening???? Why isn't it working??? How is this possible??? I have the ultimate skill, so why isn't it working???? Is someone blocking me??
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Ha... Finally, it worked.
Hmm... Where am I? I was planning to come back near Luminous's country. Why am I in the forest?
"What happened? Where am I? It feels the same as when I was inside Chloe's body. Chloe, are you there?" (Hinata)
Oh, it seems Hinata-nee is awake now.
"Yes, Hinata-nee, it's me. We have come back in time again. That bastard Feldway, killed Sensei, so I was going to come back again, but I saw that you were killed too. So, I took your soul with me, and now here we are in the past, but it seems there is some problem." (Chloe)
"I see, so I really got killed, huh... And Rimuru too. And what problem is it?" (Hinata)
"I was aiming to come near Luminous's country, but when I was coming back, I was stopped by someone..." (Chloe)
"Wait...wait...wait, what do you mean by 'stopped by someone'? How can someone stop you? And if someone stopped you, then how are we here?" (Hinata)
"I don't know that either, Hinata-nee. But then it worked later, but instead of arriving near Luminous's country, we arrived here in the forest." (Chloe)
"That's strange. If I remember correctly, when we did this before, something like this never happened." (Hinata)
"Yeah, you are right, something like this never happened before. I think someone is behind this. Let's see if we can find someone." (Chloe)
"Yeah."(Hinata)
After talking with Hinata-nee, I turned around, and there I saw...
A man who appeared to be around 20-22 years old. He exactly looks like Sensei, but with more silvery-colored hair, and a little more masculine face and body. And the strangest thing is I can't even sense his presence. It's like he doesn't have a presence at all.
If I hadn't turned around, then I never would have found out that someone is standing behind me all this time. It's like he doesn't exist until you find him out.
But only Sensei can do this, and even for him to do this, he needs his mask. Then how is he hiding his presence?
"H...Hinata-nee... Hinata-nee, why is Sensei here?" (Chloe)
"Don't panic, Chloe. We still don't know if the person in front of us is Rimuru or someone else. So, calm down." (Hinata)
"Yes, you're right, Hinata-nee. We need to find out who he is first." (Chloe)
"Yeah. You should ask him." (Hinata)
"Okay." (Chloe)
"Sensei, is that you?" I asked the person in front of me.
"What are you doing, Chloe? If you ask like that, then no stranger will answer you." (Hinata)
"Well, he might be Sensei, so that's why I asked him like this." (Chloe)
"It seems like he is going to say something. You should focus on him first." (Hinata)
"Okay!" (Chloe)
"It's not nice to ask about someone before introducing ourselves, so please, can you tell me who you are?" He asked me.
"See, I told you that he won't answer you!" (Hinata)
"Yeah, but he is right in a way because we are questioning him about himself without telling him about ourselves, so..." (Chloe)
"Let me ask him; I will make him speak." (Hinata)
"Wait, Chronoa is saying that she wants to ask him." (Chloe)
"No! Both of you are in love with him, so I don't believe that you will be able to ask him sternly. Let me take care of this." (Hinata)
"You don't have to say it like that!!! Fine, this time you win." (Chloe)
"Tell me your name, who you are?" Hinata-nee asked the person in front of us.
"You don't have to talk in this way, Hinata-nee!" (Chloe)
"Shut up. You still don't know how to talk with people yet. And it seems like he is going to tell us." (Hinata)
"Fine, if you want to know me that much, then let me introduce myself. I am The Chaos Creator, I am The King of All Existence, I am The Embodiment of Nothingness: The Ruler Of Void: Rimuru Tempest!!" Sensei introduced himself.
"See, it's Sensei!! I knew it!! He is here!!" (Chloe)
"Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But how is he here, and how does he have those draconic wings?" (Hinata)
"I don't care about that!! It's Sensei, and he is here, and alive, that is all!!" (Chloe)
"Now tell me....." Sensei was going to continue, but,
"Sensei!!!!!!"
"Rimuru POV:"
>>Well, tell me, Ciel, how was I? Didn't I look cool!<<
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>>Why did you sound so unimpressed?<<
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>>No. I am not. I am always like this.<<
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>>You're not my mom, you know.<<
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>>Are you really like to poke fun out of me?<<
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>>I am just gonna ignore it. And it seems she finally finished her talking with the other soul that is inside her.<<
"Now tell me..." I was going to ask her about herself, but she cut me off.
"Sensei!!!!!!" She removed her mask, and before I could even blink, she hugged me while saying some incoherent words.
>>Ciel, what is going on!!!!<<
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>>You!! Ahhhh... Fine, I'll see this for myself.<<
"Hey!!! Who are you? And what is going on here??" I asked her.
"Sensei!!!! Sensei!!!! You are alive!!!!! I am so happy, sensei!!!!!!" She is just saying that, ignoring me and still crying.
"Rimuru-san, thank God you are okay!!!!" Now she is calling me by my name.
I think she had multiple personalities, like some characters in movies that I saw.
What is wrong with her? I think, for the time being, I should just comfort her; she seems to be in a mess.
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>>Hoho, now you are going to talk.<<
<>
>>Hai hai. Could you please tell me why she is talking like two or three different persons? I can sense that she had someone else's soul with her, but what about the other one? What is that?<<
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>>What do you mean by Manas? It's like you before your evolution?<<
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>>Elaborate.<<
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>>I see. Thanks for the info. And I think you know who this mysterious person is too!<<
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It's been almost an hour since she started crying, and now she seems somewhat calmed down.
(Note: Hinata several times tried to take control of the body from Chloe and Chronoa to separate herself from Rimuru, but Chloe and Chronoa didn't let her do it.)
Now I should ask her about herself.
"Now that you have calmed down a little, could you tell me about yourself?" I asked her.
"What!! How could sensei forget about me? And how are you alive? How did you come here back in the past, and how did you escape from Feldway?" She asked me instead of answering my questions.
And what is she saying about Feldway? Why would I fight him? Too many questions!!
"Well, actually, I don't know what you are talking about, and I didn't travel back in time; I belong to this timeline." I answered her back.
"How is that possible?? I can clearly see that you are the same as sensei, but... But..." She seems confused.
>>Ciel, tell me how is this possible. How are there my variants exist? Didn't I am an Omnipresent being, so it should be impossible for me to have any variants in any timeline.<<
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>>I see now everything makes sense to me.<<
>>But how should I tell her about this? How should I explain everything to her?<<
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>>Will it be good to tell them about the truth?<<
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>>If you say so.<<
"Well, you see, I am not the Rimuru that you know. I am a different Rimuru." I said to her.
"What do you mean?" She asked me in confusion.
"I'll tell you about that later, but first, tell me why do you have someone else's soul with you?" I asked her because right now I am interested in this subject more than anything.
"Ahh..... About that....." She said and stopped.
"I am Hinata, Hinata Sakaguchi. And as for your question, I am here because of you?" She said, accusing me.
Ehhh... What is she saying?
"Listen, woman. First thing, I only know your name, and second thing, I don't know anything about you, and I am not the person that you know, so don't accuse me. And even if I did know, I couldn't care less about you." I said to her.
Actually, this second woman, Hinata Sakaguchi, she seems like a person who will take decisions based on her emotions. And I couldn't care less about her.
Because I am getting a feeling that I need to act rough with her or else she will try to boss me and do whatever she wants with me. And I don't like someone bossing over me, excluding Ciel.
"Sensei, don't be mean to Hinata-nee." Now her expressions are changed, and she is acting like a spoiled child.
"Now, could you tell me who you are? And the Manas that is with you?" I asked this spoiled childlike woman.
Ahhhh.... This is so confusing.
"Whoa... How did you know about it?" Now this Hinata lady asked. This is becoming more and more confusing.
"Don't ask Hinata-nee, even though he is saying that he is not the sensei that we knew, but still he is sensei after all." Again this spoiled child said.
And did she sound confusing to only me?
"I am Chloe, Chloe Aubert and about Manas,....." Now this Chloe said and stopped.
"I am Chronoa, Manas: Chronoa." Chronoa said. And now her expressions are more sharpened, and she looks more mature too. She looks like she is ready to go into battle at any moment.
Now I can make a difference in them. The spoiled childlike is Chloe, the main owner of the body, the tsundere and bossy type is Hinata, and the matured lady is Manas: Chronoa.
But still, talking with them when they are in the same body is confusing. Should I make a body for this Hinata lady? Yeah, this will make talking with them easy.
"Hey, Hinata, do you want your own body? I mean, talking with all of you when all of you are in the same body is confusing." I asked her.
"You can do that?" Instead of answering me, she questioned me.
"Yes, I can do that. Now, tell me, do you want your own body?" I asked her again.
"Yes, in this way I won't be attached to you when Chloe tries to hug you, and if possible, please can you be able to make it like my previous body?" She asked me.
What is she to ask me like this? Who am I, her servant or something? I am starting to dislike her.
"Fine, I'll do that, but don't try to order me around. I am not your subordinate or anything like that." I told her.
I accepted her request because in this way, she owes me a favor, and in return for this favor, I can take all the information from her.
>>Ciel, do you know about her previous body? Like how was it and how strong is it or any skill that was engraved on her soul?<<
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>>Okay then, you create her body exactly like before and give her all of her previous skills. Also, give her a Hero's egg. While I'll take her soul from Chloe's body.<<
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"Okay then, stay still." As I said, I approached Chloe and took Hinata's soul from Chloe's body.
While I was doing that, Ciel made a body. It's a Japanese woman's body and a beautiful one.
She is my type but because of her personality, I don't like her that much.
Well, now Ciel has made her body and the good thing is she also put some clothes on it. Now the only thing left is putting her soul into the body.
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Now that is done she should wake up now.
As I was thinking, Hinata woke up in her new body and analyzed it. She seems satisfied with the new body.
"Thank you for this. I owe you one," she said while bowing.
Well, well, she does have some manners after all.
"Well, now everything is done. Could you please tell me about yourself and why did you come here, and after you, I will tell about myself," I said to them.
I think I am starting to become impatient.
"Well, about that.... " Chloe was going to start her explanation, but I stopped her.
"Hey, why don't we go inside first? I think it will take some time for our talk," I told them.
I invited them inside.
"Yeah, I want to see sensei's house!!" Chloe said in her childish voice.
"Okay then, follow me," I said and started to go inside.
"Diablo!" I called Diablo.
"Yes, my lord!!" Before even a second can pass, he appeared in front of me and bowed.
Actually, in the beginning, he was always kneeling in front of me, but I told him to stop it and only kneel when it's needed.
"Prepare some tea and snacks for our guest," I ordered him.
"Understood, my lord!" He bowed once again and left.
"Wait, did you already summon a primordial?!" Hinata suddenly shouted.
"Now what? Do you have any problem with it?" I asked her because now she is starting to irritate me.
"Yes, you are completely messing up with the timeline!" She shouted back at me.
"Listen, woman, I don't care about the timeline or anything. I will do as I please, so shut your damn mouth or else I might kill you!" I said to her while I released only a tiny amount of my aura, which was equal to Velgrynd, and now she is on the ground kneeling.
And about the destruction that will cause because of my aura, well, Ciel had already taken care of that stuff.
"Rimuru-san, please calm down!! And Hinata, you also close your mouth because the existence of Rimuru-san has already changed the timeline pretty much," Chronoa said, taking control over Chloe's body, trying to take the situation under control.
"Only for this once, I'll stop, but if she goes against me again, then I'll teach her a good lesson," I said while erasing my aura.
"Huh.. huh... Sorry about that," Hinata said, standing up again.
"Fine.." I was going to say more to her, but one idiot decided to intervene.
"Brother.... Brother, what happened? I just sensed your aura!!" Veldora came towards me.
"It's nothing, buddy. It's just a slip-up. There is nothing to worry about," I lied to him.
"It's the first time something like this happened, but ohm... who are they?" Veldora said while analyzing Chloe and Hinata.
"They are my guests, and we are going to have some important talk, so don't disturb us," I said to him because if he tags along, then he will probably just ask some nonsense questions.
I'll tell him everything later.
"Okay, if you say so. Then I'll return to my room. Hahaha!" He returned while laughing like his usual self.
"I am not going to ask anything about this." Both of them said in sync.
"Okay, so now start your part of the story," I told them as we were sitting on chairs.
I sat opposite them, and they were in front of me.
"About our story...." Chloe began to explain to me, with Chronoa chiming in from time to time.
They told me that in their timeline, I was reincarnated as a slime. Well, it is true. Velda also told me when I once asked him that if I didn't wish to be reincarnated as a primordial demon, then I was supposed to reincarnate as a slime.
They explained that after reincarnating, I met Veldora and became friends with him. Later, I became the leader of a goblin village, went to Dwargon, and after that, I met a human named Shizue Izawa. Some events later, she died, and then I ate her, transforming into human form by mimicking her. After some events, I became the ruler of the entire Jura Forest.
Later, I became a Demon Lord, and after that, I went to war with that blondie. In that war, the blondie took control over Veldora by using [Micheal], and to free Veldora, I fought both Veldora and Velgrynd, winning too. But in that process, I evolved into a True Dragon.
They didn't tell me, but I am sure that in that fight, Raphael must have evolved into Manas: Ciel.
After some events, we had a war with angels, the Great Temna War, and at some point in that fight, I confronted their leader, Feldway, and he killed me. At that time, they both came back in time to repeat their part of the story and try to save me from this timeline.
(Note: They told Rimuru the LN story up to Volume 19 but only highlighted major/big events and also recounted Chloe's entire backstory as told in the LN.)
Really, even though I've never met Chloe before, I'm already starting to feel a bond with her.
"I see. Your story makes sense," I said to them after hearing their part of the story.
"I think Rimuru-san also knows that there are multiple timelines, and Rimuru-san also seems to be as strong as a True Dragon," Chronoa said.
She's sharp and quick to catch on to things, as expected of a Manas.
"Yes, I know there are multiple timelines, and I know a lot more than anyone. But you're wrong about me being as strong as a True Dragon. I am not as strong as a True Dragon," I corrected them.
I didn't reveal my true strength because I wanted to see their reaction after knowing the truth.
"Now that we've talked about us, why don't you tell us about yourself?" It was Hinata who asked this time.
"Okay, actually, I was also supposed to reincarnate as a slime in this timeline, but..." I began to explain, but then some idiot woman decided to interrupt me.
"But what? Tell us," Hinata said, interrupting me.
Seriously, now I'm starting to hate her.
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And that's end that's all for this chapter.
Next chapter will be 'The Talk With Time traveler'.
Tell me how is the chapter in comments. It is really motivates me to write new chapters.
Word Count = 4k