(Third Person POV – Nova observing)
The air above Jura Tempest was thick with tension. A storm of magicules brewed in the distance, a sign of the chaos unfolding within the forest. Orcs—thousands of them—marched like an unstoppable tide.
Rimuru's village, once little more than a gathering of goblins and wolves, was now a fortress-in-progress. The slime had grown, evolved, gathered allies. And now, fate had pushed her straight into the jaws of her first true war.
Nova?
He didn't lift a finger.
Instead, the silver-haired man sat lazily atop a stone outcropping, his mismatched eyes reflecting the moonlight. His nine tails were gone—concealed within his human guise—but the oppressive aura never left.
Ciel, Nova thought, his voice toneless.
<
"Estimate Rimuru's odds without my interference."
<<…Ninety-nine percent victory rate. The presence of named subordinates—Benimaru, Shuna, Shion, Souei—has drastically tilted the scales.>>
Nova nodded slightly. "As expected. Canon flows… for now."
He leaned back, expression unreadable.
'No reason to interfere. Let the slime have her war.'
(Cosmic Layer)
Far above mortal comprehension, in a realm where concepts were playthings, two familiar presences stirred.
"Oi, fox boy!" boomed JACW, lounging in a chair made of stars that folded and unfolded infinitely. "You're just sitting there doing nothing? Lame."
Another voice hummed, calm and smug. "It is almost admirable, really. The refusal to interfere. Unlike you, who once tried to reset an entire multiverse because someone spoiled the ending of a manga."
JACW pointed accusingly. "Shut up, TOAA. You still owe me for that time you—"
Nova's voice cut through their squabble.
"Both of you are loud."
The supreme beings blinked. For an instant, the endless halls of infinity fell silent.
Then TOAA chuckled. "And yet, here you are… listening."
Nova didn't look at them. His gaze stayed on the orc horde below.
"Entertain me, or leave. Rimuru doesn't need me here. But I won't waste the silence."
Presence, who had until now watched in silence, finally spoke with a low chuckle.
"Arrogant little fox. I like him."
JACW huffed. "Don't encourage the brat. Next thing you know, he'll start mocking us directly."
Nova smirked faintly. "I already do."
(Back to Rimuru – Third Person POV)
On the battlefield, Rimuru unleashed her Predator skill, devouring orcs by the dozens. Benimaru's flames lit the night, Souei's shadows danced between foes, and Shion… well, Shion was Shion.
The chaos was intoxicating.
Nova's gaze lingered on the spectacle without interest. To him, it was a story already written, lines recited countless times in parallel threads of reality.
'She grows stronger. Good. But not strong enough.'
Ciel chimed in, her tone polite as always.
<
"Yes. Archive them. Rimuru's path must be mapped."
<
(Cosmic Layer Again)
"You're seriously just taking notes?" JACW groaned, tossing a fragment of dying stars like dice across the void. "Where's the fun in that?"
TOAA sipped from a mug of something that smelled like narrative essence. "He is preparing. That's what you never understood, JACW. He plans while you act."
"Plans are boring."
"Which is why you keep losing bets."
Nova exhaled softly. "Both of you are idiots."
Presence leaned in, amused. "And yet, fox, you still tolerate us. That is… curious."
For the first time, Nova's scarlet eye flicked upward—toward the cosmic audience watching him.
"I tolerate you because you amuse me."
Silence followed. Then JACW burst out laughing, clutching his infinite sides.
"Oh, I like him more every time!"
TOAA only smiled knowingly.
Presence whispered, almost conspiratorial. "Be careful, fox. One day, amusement becomes attachment. And attachment…"
"…is weakness," Nova finished flatly.
Presence tilted his head. "…Or strength. Depending on the story."
(Third Person POV)
The battle raged below. Rimuru and her followers carved their way through the orc army, each clash echoing like drums of destiny.
And Nova?
He remained on his perch. Watching. Waiting. Silent as the void.
Not because he couldn't change everything with a snap of his fingers.
But because—for now—he chose not to.
(Third Person POV – Rimuru's Battle)
The battlefield was chaos incarnate. Thousands of orcs surged like a tidal wave, their eyes glazed over by hunger and madness. The sky burned red with the fires of Benimaru, each swing of his blade turning dozens of orcs to ash.
Souei darted in and out of shadows, his threads binding and slicing. Shion, laughing maniacally, split orcs in half with brute strength alone, while Shuna's gentle magic wove shields of protection around their allies.
At the heart of it all, Rimuru stood calm. Her Predator skill consumed orc after orc, each one strengthening her. The weight of the Orc Lord's power loomed in the distance, but the slime's confidence never wavered.
It was a spectacle that would have terrified most.
Nova, however, sat cross-legged on a cliff, watching like it was nothing more than a mildly amusing play. His silver hair fluttered in the wind, and his crimson-gold eyes remained cold, detached.
'So much noise for so little consequence.'
(Cosmic Layer)
Somewhere above infinite infinities, three beings sat together on thrones that reshaped themselves every second, each throne more ridiculous than the last.
"Alright, hear me out!" JACW slammed a cosmic beer mug against the void. "Nova and Rimuru—best ship. Period. You can't convince me otherwise."
TOAA sipped calmly from his cup of Narrative Essence™. "That's idiotic. Rimuru is a slime with questionable gender identity. The fox is practically a weaponized singularity. The chemistry is nonexistent."
JACW rolled his glowing eyes. "Bruh. That's what makes it funny. She's soft and bubbly, he's cold and emotionally dead. Classic opposites attract!"
Presence, who had been quiet until now, smirked. "You're both wrong. Clearly the better option is a harem. It is the most efficient resolution to all romantic tension, and it drives mortal readers insane. A two-for-one deal."
JACW spat out his drink. "WHAT?! That's cheap writing!"
"Efficient," Presence corrected.
"Lazy!" JACW barked back.
"Profitable," TOAA added, smirking knowingly.
JACW pointed an accusing cosmic finger at TOAA. "Don't you start. You've canonically approved harems before. Don't think I don't know."
TOAA raised a brow. "And? They sold well, didn't they?"
Presence chuckled. "Face it, JACW. The fox-boy either ends up with Rimuru, a harem, or no one at all. Personally, I find the 'no one at all' path the most amusing. Imagine a billion fangirls screaming into the void."
(Back to Nova)
"...Are you three seriously debating my love life?"
The words were soft, but they cut across the infinite halls of creation like a blade.
The supreme beings froze.
JACW coughed awkwardly. "…Uh. No?"
TOAA set down his mug slowly. "…Yes."
Presence simply smirked. "Always."
Nova pinched the bridge of his nose, expression unreadable.
"I am not interested. Romance is irrelevant. My existence transcends such trivialities."
JACW grinned. "So you admit you're aware of the ships, huh?"
"…Die."
"See?!" JACW laughed. "That's totally tsundere energy! He's totally going to end up with Rimuru."
TOAA sighed. "Or he'll never end up with anyone, because he's emotionally castrated. Which is fitting."
Presence leaned in, amused. "No, no… let him speak. If romance is irrelevant, fox, then why do you stay in your human form more and more? Why not remain the monster? The beast? Surely… appearances matter to no one as detached as you claim to be."
Nova's crimson eye flicked toward Presence. "…Because I felt like it."
Presence chuckled darkly. "Liar."
(Third Person POV – Rimuru's Battle)
The orcs screamed, a flood of flesh crashing against the defense lines. Entire battalions were torn apart by sheer numbers. Yet, no matter how many fell, more kept coming.
Benimaru raised his flaming blade high. "CRIMSON LOTUS!!" A wave of fire engulfed hundreds. Souei's threads danced, slicing through necks like silk through paper. Shion, laughing, hurled entire orcs into the air like ragdolls.
And Rimuru?
Rimuru smiled. A small, terrifying smile.
"Predator."
Whole swathes of orcs vanished into nothingness, absorbed into Rimuru's endless body. Each one devoured added strength, knowledge, and skills. Step by step, the slime grew into the being destined to stand as a Demon Lord.
Nova's gaze never left Rimuru. His expression, however, never changed.
'So much blood. So much hope. Yet it all leads to the same ending.'
Ciel's voice whispered in his mind.
<
"No."
<
Nova exhaled, eyes narrowing. "Ciel—"
<
Nova froze. "…Tch."
(Side Scene – Cosmic Layer, Arguing Intensifies)
"There!" JACW pointed dramatically. "Even his dumb skill assistant is shipping him with Rimuru. Canon confirmed!"
"Ciel is a glorified calculator," TOAA said dryly. "Not a matchmaker."
"Yeah? Tell that to every system AI that turned into a yandere!"
Presence chuckled. "I support Ciel. She has taste."
Nova growled lowly. "…You're all insufferable."
JACW grinned wider. "And you're in denial. Which is hilarious."
TOAA leaned back in his throne, sighing. "This is exactly why I told you mortals shouldn't be given omnipotent foxes. Now we're stuck with cosmic soap operas."
Presence smirked. "And the readers love it. Which means… so do we."
(Third Person POV)
The battlefield raged. Rimuru's forces pressed forward, slowly turning the tide. The Orc Disaster awaited, but the outcome was inevitable.
And above it all, Nova sat unmoved. The gods argued, the world burned, and mortals struggled for survival.
But the silver-haired man remained detached.
Emotionless.
Unchanging.
…Or so he claimed.
Side Story – The Author's Illusion
(Outside Narrative Layer – Cosmic Café)
A peculiar café existed beyond all layers of reality, where infinite narratives intersected. The mugs on the counter held not coffee, but swirling galaxies condensed into liquid form. The regulars here weren't mortals—they were supreme beings themselves, lounging in mortal disguises for no reason other than style.
JACW leaned back in his chair, tossing dice made of timelines across the table. "You know, the Author thinks he's clever. This whole thing about 'illusion of natural growth'? Please. He's trying to trick the readers into thinking the writing style evolves naturally over time."
TOAA raised an eyebrow, swirling his drink of pure narrative essence. "Trick? No. It's a good ploy, but let's be honest—there's nothing natural about this growth. The quality was too sharp, too precise from the start."
Presence smirked, stirring his cosmic tea with a spoon that was also the concept of causality. "Indeed. You can only fake growth if the base level was rough. Here, the foundation was already solid. The so-called illusion collapses the moment you realize it's deliberate craftsmanship."
At the corner table, an unknown supreme being chuckled softly—an avatar of Imagination itself. "In other words, the Author is both trolling and teaching at the same time. Making beginners believe growth is linear, when in fact, it's the result of deliberate rewriting, editing, and design."
JACW grinned. "Oh yeah, speaking of which—pro tip for you newbie authors out there: stop waiting for 'natural improvement.' Improvement isn't a gift, it's theft. You steal tricks from better writers, you steal structures from other works, and you stitch them into your own style. That's how it works."
TOAA nodded, deadpan. "Exactly. Read widely, imitate boldly, then refine mercilessly. Natural growth is just an excuse people use when they don't want to revise."
Presence smirked again. "And here's another truth—word count padding isn't filler if it reinforces themes or expands character layers. Most amateur writers think adding more words ruins pacing. Wrong. It only ruins pacing if the words add nothing."
The supreme beings clinked their cups together like professors congratulating themselves on a good lecture.
(A Shadow in the Corner)
From the farthest corner, Nova sat in his human form, sipping quietly. His crimson-gold eyes glowed faintly as he watched the supreme beings bicker.
"You talk too much," he muttered.
JACW perked up. "We're teaching, kid. You should be taking notes."
TOAA smirked. "Not that he needs it. He's practically proof of what happens when you start polished."
Presence leaned forward, voice dripping with amusement. "Which only proves our point—there is no illusion of natural growth here. The growth is engineered. And mortals? They'll never see it. They'll just assume it's magic."
Nova's lips curved faintly—not into a smile, but something dangerously close. "…Magic, huh?"
The cosmic café rippled as infinite conversations wove themselves into teaching lessons disguised as jokes. And somewhere, across the mortal plane, an author chuckled, typing words that would make readers question whether they were reading a story—or an elaborate lecture hidden between the lines.
The café had settled into a rhythm of cosmic lectures when suddenly JACW slammed his mug down. The galaxy inside fizzed and erupted like a soda.
"You know what's funny? None of this even matters. By the end, Nova literally stands above existence itself. Rimuru, Diablo, Veldora—all of them bow. Hell, even Ciel stops pretending to be the one in control."
The entire café went silent.
Presence narrowed his eyes. "You just dropped the ending, didn't you?"
TOAA groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Classic JACW. Can't go five minutes without spoiling something. Next you'll probably say how the so-called 'final battle' isn't even a battle—it's a conversation across infinite planes of thought, where Nova redefines what it means to exist."
"Oops," JACW muttered, clearly not sorry.
From the corner, Imagination itself cackled. "Why stop there? Should we also mention how the romance angle doesn't even resolve until after the so-called climax, or how the villain everyone thinks is important was just a pawn of a pawn?"
Presence sighed dramatically. "Might as well just post the story summary on the front page."
The three looked at Nova, as if daring him to confirm. But the crimson-eyed figure only sipped his drink, gaze unreadable.
"…If you believe them," he finally said, voice cold as infinity, "then you deserve to be spoiled."
And with that, the café erupted into laughter—half cosmic, half cruel—leaving readers everywhere unsure if what they just heard was truth, lie, or both.
To be continued…