Humans who can be summoned to another world must have powerful energy contained within their souls.
Therefore, it is not that humans become stronger just by arriving in the Cardinal World.
On the contrary, it is precisely because your soul is strong that you are able to cross the endless void and reach the Cardinal World in the first place.
Additionally, the soul energy of otherworlders is generally stored within them in the form of Unique Skills.
By killing or devouring otherworlders, there is a certain probability of acquiring their abilities.
However, Kyoya didn't choose Kirarai's Bewilderer.
Bewilderer, a mental manipulation-type Unique Skill, was completely useless against powerful opponents with mental resistance. It was trash.
Even if Kyoya had obtained Bewilderer, it wouldn't have been enough to defeat Rimuru.
So, he took a gamble.
He sacrificed Bewilderer, along with Kirara's soul, as an offering to gain a second Unique Skill for himself.
And he succeeded.
Sword of Desperation, combined with his Severer that could cut through anything.
Kyoya didn't believe Rimuru could remain so calm now.
No matter how strong your flames are, it doesn't change the fact that you're a squishy mage.
Kyoya could already see himself piercing Rimuru's throat and savoring her stunned expression.
Boom!!!
However, the scene he envisioned never appeared.
Instead, what came was a raging inferno like something from purgatory.
What Sword of Desperation? What Severer?
In front of the Genesis Starfire, which reduced all things to nothing, they were meaningless illusions.
Without the protection of an Ultimate Skill, trying to fight Rimuru while she controlled the Starfire was pure delusion.
"Why?"
Kirara's corpse was completely incinerated, and the blade in Kyoya's hand once again turned to dust.
Even half of his body had been consumed by the inextinguishable flames.
"Ah!!"
Kyoya, engulfed in flames, rolled madly on the ground.
"Why, why, why?!"
"Useless! That stinking bitch, that worthless piece of trash!!"
Even while burning to the point of mental collapse, Kyoya only thought about how useless the Unique Skill he gained through Kirara's soul was.
In his eyes, he wasn't at fault. It was Kirara and Rimuru who were to blame.
"What a scumbag…"
Rimuru couldn't comprehend Kyoya's mindset.
Killing a companion, using their soul as a sacrifice for power, then blaming her for not yielding a stronger Unique Skill?
"For someone like you, just burning you to death would be too easy."
Rimuru was a very gentle person.
Before reincarnating, she was the kind of senior who would die on the street protecting a junior colleague from a thug.
So, the act of harming one's companions was absolutely unforgivable.
"Ah!!!"
Kyoya let out an even more painful scream.
"Spare me! Please! Let me go…"
But this was not because Rimuru increased the Starfire's power.
On the contrary, she had weakened it, allowing the flames to burn his body and soul more slowly.
More interestingly, because of his Extra Skill which accelerated his thought processes, Kyoya experienced this hellish pain more vividly, more slowly.
Indeed, after just half a minute, Kyoya had already lost consciousness, and even his mind had begun to collapse.
"Alright."
Rimuru walked up to Razen and asked coldly, "You're the mastermind behind all this, aren't you? Do you have anything else to say?"
Gulp.
Watching Rimuru torture Kyoya with Starfire, Razen was trembling all over, his back soaked in cold sweat.
"No! Absolutely not!"
"I... I'm just a magician serving the royal family of the Kingdom of Falmuth."
"Our relationship is more of a collaboration than one of ruler and subject!"
Razen's defense sounded pathetic and powerless.
But he had no choice.
If he wanted to avoid ending up like the others, he had to try and save himself.
"What kind of dog-shit logic is that?"
"So you're saying that just because you're a mercenary, killing isn't a sin?"
"And why would you think that emphasizing your identity as a magician would save your life?"
Rimuru was no longer the same Demon Lord as in the original story.
She wasn't the leader of the Monster Nation now, and had no need to care about her standing with the Kingdom of Falmuth.
"Go to hell and atone for your sins, you disgusting bastard."
Rimuru didn't give Razen another chance. She ignored all of his words and resistance, directly tearing his soul from his body.
Losing his soul, Razen's physical body perished instantly.
But if given the chance, Razen could still revive as an undead through his soul.
Unfortunately, Rimuru wasn't going to give him that chance.
She kept Razen's soul only to hand it over to Diablo.
The Original Black would extract information from Razen's soul and might even process it into valuable resources.
After all, Razen was a Demon Lord Seed with 400,000 magicules.
Wasting him would be too much of a pity.
"The quality of human souls in this world really is high."
Rin examined the data Violet had compiled.
From five hundred noble knights, Razen, and three otherworlders, the amount of soul energy extracted was enormous.
In fact, just the four individuals alone were nearly enough for Rin's quasi-Demon Lords to complete their awakening.
Of course, this kind of operation was only possible under Rin.
Other Demon Lords lacked the means to help their subordinates awaken.
They also didn't possess a system that could purify and refine souls like Justeaze.
Even the Demon Lord from the original story had to rely on massive soul sacrifices to help others awaken.
Otherwise, if summoning otherworlders and harvesting their souls could turn any monster into a True Demon Lord, wouldn't every qualified subordinate be ascending already?
Anyone could tell such a thing was impossible.
"But, who should awaken?"
Right now, many under Rin's command had the qualifications to awaken.
However, some lacked the potential to gain Ultimate Skills.
For example, Hakurou and Kaede.
They were too old, making it difficult for them to earn the favor of the Voice of the World.
Among the others, Benimaru, Souei, Shuna, and Shion, the earliest to follow Rin, were undoubtedly the top candidates.
Souka had joined too late. It would be improper to grant such a reward to her again.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)