[Book 2] That time I got reincarnated as a slime,no, a DRAGON?

Ch-95

Rimuru's POV

"Better my foot! I am literally bleeding inside. All my organs have failed. I can't even stand properly!"

"But your soul is fine, right? Why do you care about your mortal body?"

"..." I couldn't say anything back to him. He was right. My soul was completely fine. Rather, it was better than fine. The new inflow of information had somehow managed to strengthen my soul.

"What did you do?"

"Me? I did nothing. I only gave you the knowledge of Nihilium. Nihilium is not as simple as just another energy source. Unlike magicules, it is not easy to control, unlike Stardust, it is not easy to use, but it has a massive advantage that other forms of energies do not have. And that is its flexibility."

"Flexibility?"

"That's right. What do you think the essence of Nihilium is?"

"... Void? Nothingness?" After hearing my answer, I could feel the blank stare that Nihilanthian was giving me.

".... You are not wrong. But that is not the true essence. The true essence of Nihilium is power. With power, you can make nihilium obey your every command. Don't think of Nihilium as just another form of energy. It is much more than that. Nihilium is like a creature of its own.

Once you can control Nihilium well enough, you can make it to do anything. Even things like this." As soon as he said, he released some Nihilium, which took the shape of a human behind him. The man waved, before disintegrating into a ball and reshaping into a horse. It continued to change its shape a few more times before disappearing.

"Do you understand now? Why Nihilium is different from the other sources of energy? That is because it can create life. This Nihilium, that is seen as harbinger of Destruction by all living creatures is actual reason as to why that are even alive.

Nihilium can evolve. It can grow. The nihilium that I control will without a doubt be different from yours. Why? Because Nihilium is not something fixed. It is fluid. It is flexible. It will choose and adapt to whatever its user desires. Turn Null, obviously can't do that.

With the information I gave you, mastering Nihilium is only a matter of time. You are more talented than your predecessor, I will give you that. But you'll have to work really hard of you want to overtake him."

"Who are you talking about? Who is this predecessor?"

"I am sure you know him very well. After all, you were quite proficient in using his skills as well."

"... Who?"

"Azatoth."

Azatoth. That name is oddly familiar to me. Not only was my ultimate skill called «Void God Azatoth» but I was also called Azatoth in my previous world. I thought I had gotten my Ultimate skill named after my code name of my previous world. But now that I think about it, that is quite a stupid idea.

"Azatoth died before he could completely master Nihilium. His understanding of Nihilium wasn't that strong, and his body did not suit him to control Nihilium. But you are different. You have talent. You can easily reach heights that Azatoth could only have dreamt of. When I had injected this information into him, his soul was unable to withstand it and nearly blew up. Luckily, I prevented it, so he managed to survive."

"Wait....! Is that why you said that I seemed to be much better than you expected?"

"Exactly. With your talents, I had no doubts that you would survive, but I was expecting your soul to be damaged, but it seems that didn't happen. Your soul didn't suffer an ounce of damage." Nihilanthian said with a smile, but suddenly the aura surrounding him became serious.

"Boy. Your soul is still a fletchling. It hasn't even matured enough. It not more than a millennia old, yet why did it survive the impact of Nihilium?

Just what has your soul seen and experienced that it isn't fazed even by such a destructive force?"

"... A destructive force? Hahaha. What a joke!" I laugh hysterically as I finally understand what he means to say. Nihilium was without a doubt strong enough to destroy entire galaxies at once. But it was nowhere near as strong as things that we had found.

"Strong? Destructive? I won't deny that it is strong, unpredictable and destructive. But by no means is it the strongest. Nihilanthian. Do not underestimate us who came after you. Unlike you who was born powerful, we are weak. So we use everything we can to get stronger. And this is one of the best example." I said as I replicated what Nihilanthian had done.

I created Nihilium and tried to control them. Though they did not do what I wanted them to do exactly, it was still manageable. As I didn't want it to to make any precise motions, it was fine. Seeing the I was controlling nihilium, Nihilanthian's nonexistent eyes went wide momentarily before he regained his composure.

I quickly divide the Nihilium into two parts. One of the parts, i compress. Nihilium is already a very dense material. If I continue to compress it, there will come a limit where it will start bending the law of physics. It's gravitation pull will become so strong that not even light can escape from it. Yes. It will form a black hole.

As soon as Nihilanthian saw that, he spoke up. "That's a black hole isn't it? I have heard about it. It can trap and devour any form of matter. It is destructive, but it cannot be controlled. So what's the point?"

"Heh! Just wait." I then convert the remaining nihilium into a plasma of hot hydrogen and helium. I then proceed to seperate the electrons, neutron and protons and then further break them into quarks. I reorganize these quarks in the way I see fit. In the way that they will form the most destructive weapon in mankind's arsenal.

"This is a strangelet. The energy required to make it is so intense that even if I were to use entire galaxies as fuel it might not be enough. And that is not even taking into account how high the difficulty is for the technical work. No one in our world managed to create it. After all, no Empire was forced enough that they would sacrifice an entire galaxy."

"Alright. But what does it do?"

"This is like a cancer to a mortal. As soon as it touches anything, be it matter, energy or mass, it converts it into strangelet as well. You want to destroy the universe? Just throw one drop of it onto a star. And soon, there will be nothing left. Nihilium, though strong, is not self-sufficient."

"... No wonder you were not fazed by its destructive abilities. But, that doesn't Nihilium will assimilate into your soul so easily. There must be something else as well. Something that is protecting you from the corrosive ability of Nihilium."

"And that is?" To my question, I receive silence. Nihilanthian continued to stare at me as if trying to see through my soul.

"... I see. That explains a lot."
"What?"

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I hope you guys like it.