Honkai impact: Dimensional Herrscher

Rias strolled through the floating city of Atlas

After…. evaporating that woman, she had used her wings to fly up here

…Not one of her most pleasant experiences, it took a long time, and the oxygen so high in the atmosphere was indeed thin

But then again, the redhead was a devil, and there were also spells for that kind of situation

Constructing an isolating barrier the size of a person… Not necessary per se, but it was interesting

…. Interesting enough to see how dumb devils are.

Seriously, Adam beat her ass and enlightened her, so it is only now that Rias sees how dumb her race is

They have magic that can be shaped through pure imagination! How are there not hundred of thousands of spells out there circulating with such an overpowered ability?!

Though it is not omnipotent, and the energy cost is intense, devil magic is stil op

And to be honest… She should have known

She is a cultured woman- an Otaku of extreme scales, so how did she not think of ever creating the abilities she has seen in anime?!

How foolish of her!

….

"Haah…."

 Tap….Tap….Tap

She sighed, the sounds of her shoes tapping the floor echoing throughout the environment as she went towards the room housing the Relic of Creation

"Took you long enough"

The familiar sound of Adam's sarcastic voice reached her as she entered the room

What greeted her was Adam, hands crossed in front of his chest as he leaned against the metal wall with his back

There was also Rimuru, tapping on her foot impatiently

And there was also…. A Yokai woman was dressed like a Shinto Shrine Maiden, along with a small Yokai girl floating beside her

"Unlike you, I had my fight on the ground, and had to fly up here manually"

The redhead rolled her eyes at the silver-haired boy, his sarcasm surprisingly not annoying her

Weird, normally she would rebuke him and start to also speak to him in a sarcastic way?

Hm…. Well, now that they are genuine friends, and considering how he inspired her and forced her to change her attitude…. She will reluctantly forgive his attitude!

"Hmph!"

She crossed her arms under her chest, looking away with a pout

"Why is this girl suddenly acting like a tsundere?"

The Admin turned to the slime beside him, asking casually 

"Uh-"

"I am not a tsundere!!"

Rias angrily pointed at him, glaring at him

'I take back what I said, I will never forgive this guy!'

She expressed her dissatisfaction with her mind

"Okay, okay" Adam dismissively waved his hand "Stop being a anime character"

"Shut up! You overpowered protagonist of a wish-fulfillment anime!"

"Hey, hey! If I was a protagonist of some anime, 'weak to strong' and 'smart and handsome MC' would be the first two tags"

"Hah!? It would be more like 'op MC' and 'scumbag'!"

"Oi! Where did that scumbag come from-!?"

"Please stop arguing!"

Rimuru shouted as she interrupted the ongoing argument, appearing between and spreading her hands, as if to stop a fight that was about to start

"Oh come on, Rimuru!" Adam smirked, crossing his hands in front of his chest once again "I was just teasing her"

"Hmph!"

Rias harrumphed, her arms still crossed under her chest while her head was turned sideways

…

The blue-haired girl looked at Adam, then at Rias who snorted, and then at Adam once again

"Eh…"

Seeing the small, barely noticeable smile on the red-haired devil's face, the slime girl's eyes widened

'When did their relationship become so good?'

She looked between them once again

… When she first arrived in this world and saw Adam and Rias arguing about Jojo, she had thought that their relationship would be limited to acquaintances

Sure, arguing about anime is a way for people to bond over…. It is a NEET's way to make friends with similar interests

But to be honest, Rimuru understood that the busty redhead was too prideful and had a short fuse. If anyone stepped on that pride or annoyed her, she would definitely blow up and dislike the other party

So seeing Adam doing exactly just that confused her. He clearly knew about the devil heiress' temper, so why was he always so blunt?

And why did he always try to annoy the redhead when he knew that she would dislike him?

The blue-haired slime scratched her head in confusion

'Oh, is this the so-called character development?!'

She exclaimed in her heart, eyes lightin up in realization

So Rias had character development and now sees Adam's teasing as playful bantering? Or maybe she appreciates that casual back and forth?

Well, the blue slime wasn't a psychologist, so she can just blame this change on Adam's charisma

…

..

.

"Here!"

From where she was sitting, Rimuru brought her hand in the air, a black purplish vortex manifesting from her palm 

As the manifestation of her [Gluttony] receded, the Relic was revealed to the world

It took the shape of a golden ornamented staff with a blue spearhead-shaped crystal on top. It also features a smaller similarly blue crystal on the bottom

"Thank you"

He thanked her, no further communication was needed. For Rimuru and Adam who have a connection between themselves and their [Great Sage]s that are in sync, unnecessary words are not needed

…

After a bit of bantering with Rias, they finally decided to bring the collected Relics together

No, he won't summon the brother gods, but this is checkmate with Salem.

Honestly, he could find a way to kill her even without the Relics. If he remained in this world for a month or two and focused on developing the power of destruction, it would be enough to kill the Queen of Grimm by destroying her mind or soul

But…

He misses Kiana and Mei, dammit!

…

Adam shook himself out of these thoughts

Motioning with his finger, the golden staff flew to his side, hanging in the air just beside the other Relic

"There was a consciousness in the relic" The slime girl informed him "I didn't know what to do with them.... So I will leave the decision to you!"

"Ah" Adam blinked, somewhat surprised. "Right, I forgot about that"

There was indeed such a premise... Honestly, this information is so deep in his memories that it didn't even occur to him that there was another being inside the relic 

Thankfully, though, Jinn informed him of this, so he wasn't unprepared

"What about you?"

He looked at Rias, waiting for her to hand the sword at her waist at him

"Um….."

Her fingers twitched, hesitation flashing on her face as she instinctively hovered her palm over the sword

"Sure…"

The redhead sighed, shaking her head as she threw the sword at him

"Huh…?"

He uttered out in confusion as the sword stopped in the air a few centimeters away from him

"Why are you getting so violent?"

Adam asked the sulking red-haired devil as the black sword flew next to the Relic of Creation

"Hey! I am not violent!"

She huffed, arms under her bust as she leaned back into the icy throne

"....."

He didn't respond, throwing only a certain 'look' at her

"Fine, fine!" She waved her arms in the air "I just want it, okay!? It seems to have a certain affinity with my bloodline!"

Rias finally explained. Although it seemed obvious that a sword of destruction would have a certain affinity with a bloodline of destruction, she still explained that fact out loud, hoping to convince him to hand it over to her

"...."

The silver-haired boy remained silent at her words

"Sure…."

He smirked slowly

The devil heiress' expression turned bright at his words, smiling widely as she opened her mouth-

"Then-!"

"If you are a good girl, I will give it to you"

"-Eh….?"

She froze at his words, taking a few moments to process his words

"You…"

Rias drew out slowly. Her voice didn't have rage or disgust- in fact, it seemed as if she was so bewildered that she didn't know what to respond with

"How about it?" He smiled teasingly "It's a pretty good deal, don't you think?"

"Kuh!" The busty redhead covered her reddening cheeks out of shame "I reject! I don't want that sword anymore, you stingy Admin!"

Adam only rolled his eyes at her overreaction. Though he was mostly joking, it was quite fun to tease this prideful tsundere

Though, he was curious as to whether Rias would actually throw her pride away and actually endure the shame in order to get the relic

Well, it seems that this devil heiress doesn't want this sword as much as he thought

…

..

.

"What will you do with all the Relics now, Adam?" Rias said in curiosity as she crossed her legs in her icy throne

Collecting all the Relics seems like an arduous task, and beyond the special abilities they have, the red-haired devil can't see why someone would go through so much effort to collect them

"Will you summon those brother gods?" 

The blue-haired girl asked him with a tilt of her head, differently from the ignorant redhead, as she received knowledge from the silver-haired boy

"No"

Replying with a firm voice, Adam raised his hand, letting the familiar devouring vortex of [Gluttony] manifest from his palm and envelop the two newly acquired Relics and transfer them to his [Stomach]

"Wait?! Brother Gods?!" Rias suddenly let out in a surprised voice "There are Gods in this world? I thought it was just a weak anime world!"

As the vortex disappeared, the silver haired turned his head to the busty devil

"Hn" He rolled his eyes at her "Who do you think created these Relics?"

"Well-! I thought they were just there...."

He deadpanned at the stupid Otaku girl, giving a look as if he were looking at an idiot

"It's not my fault, okay?!" She huffed as she turned her head to the side, crossing her arms under her surprisingly large bust "You only gave me the location of that Sword of destruction, and a method to obtain it, but you didn't give me any more information!"

He indeed only transferred the necessary information in her head, but.... 

"Isn't it obvious, though?" Rimuru looked at her with a puzzling look "Those Relics are powerful, so a God- or at least a powerful being should have created them"

"You're right, but couldn't they have been born when this world came into existence.... Or something like that...?"

"Rias-san... I think you have watched too much anime"

Ignoring the two who were deep in conversation, he started corrupting and taking ownership of the Relics that were currently in his [Stomach]

Adam frowned as he encountered resistance to the Relic of Creation. Although he guessed that it wouldn't want to become subservient to him, the silver-haired boy was still a tad bit annoyed at the resistance

Sure... He could forcefully overpower the spirit's will, but he didn't know the consequences of doing so 

After all, for this Relic to work, just like with the Lamp, a spirit needed to be summoned. This spirit- Ambrosius, will create anything someone describes to him, but one needs to be careful as this spirit will create exactly what it was instructed to create

Sure, maybe he can corrupt the spirit itself... But Adam won't do it unless it is absolutely necessary, after all, underestimating a God's creation is beyond stupidity

'Jinn, any tips?'

Since killing it or forcefully corrupting it won't work, the silver-haired boy turned for help from his own, more friendly spirit. 

Of course, [Great Sage] will analyze it and try to probe for a weakness, but he has to know if there is an alternative option available

'Master' 

The spirit dutifully replied after receiving information about his problem to her mind 

'Why don't you just make a Master-servant contract with him too?'

Adam grimaced at her suggestion. 

The Master-servant bond he obtained from the Gacha has.... some sexual after-effects, so although Jinn isn't currently feeling much because she established this contract just recently (Or because she just can't recognize what this emotion is), she will definitely feel some side effects soon

There was also the fact that Jinn genuinely and willingly surrendered herself to him, so the 'punishment' part of the contract won't come into play 

In short.... It is impossible for the silver haired boy to do this contract with a man! 

'No!' 

He shot down her suggestion firmly 

'Not to mention the nature behind the Master-servant contract, it is impossible for me to have a man inside me for an extended amount of time!'

Even without all of the above problems about the Master-servant contract, Adam would still make the same choice. 

Having a man inside his [Stomach] is disgusting (The only exception being if he has intentions to kill the man... Or analyze his existence and read his memories) 

'Ugh...' 

His expression turned to that of disgust, being nauseous just at that though 

'Just thinking about hearing a man's voice in my head for the rest of my life is unbearable...!'

If it was a friend, then maybe the silver-haired boy would bear it, but only on the condition that they will eventually leave his [Stomach] and get separated from him

'....'

Jinn seemed speechless at his intense reaction, but she didn't comment on his ridiculous views

'Then Master....' 

The female spirit spoke up after some thought 

'How about... talking to him? Despite his character, Ambrosius still hopes for humanity's victory over Salem'

'Is that so?'

'Indeed, he will definitely allow you to do whatever you want with the Relic if you defeat Salem'

Now that made Adam sink deep in thought. It seemed that he was too hung up over how to obtain all the Relic in the most efficient way possible that he forgot one thing

In his haste to corrupt and obtain ownership of the Relics, his only thought at the encounter of resistance was to kill and erase the being who stopped him from achieving his goal

"Haaah"

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, the silver-haired boy let out a deep sigh as he decided to use the reasonable solution to his problem

"Adam, what happened?"

Looking at the source of the voice which interrupted him, Adam saw the worried greenish blue eyes of Rias looking at him with slight confusion 

"Yeah... Your sigh just now sounded exhausted..." 

Rimuru followed up, likely picking up on his ever-shifting emotions through their link

"It's fine" The silver-haired boy reassured them "I need to deal with the Relic of Creation- protect my body for a while"

While he doesn't need protection as it will only take a split of a second under the skill [Thought Acceleration]... It's not bad to tell them 

"That consciousness?" 

The blue-haired slime girl nodded in understanding 

"But didn't Jinn already submit to you? In that case, this other spirit shouldn't be that troublesome, right?"

"That's right" The red-haired devil followed up in agreement "You already dealt with one spirit- dealing with another one should be no trouble at all!"

"No, it's just that...." Adam hesitated slightly, looking at both of them before sighing "I'm not sure if that spirit will accept my ownership of the Relic, I don't want to force him with my power, you know?"

It didn't really matter if the silver-haired boy told them his problems, after all, what are fellow Group members for? 

"Hmm...." Rias tapped her chin with her fingers, a pondering expression on her face "Why don't you talk to it? Maybe put your talk-no-jutsu to the test and convince it with that"

The silver-haired boy deadpanned at her 

"Thanks for the advice, genius"

His voice was sarcastic

"... She's right, though" The slime girl interjected "If you don't want to overpower it with force, then talking to it is the best option"

"... It seems that I have no other choice- at least if violence doesn't work, I have to seek peaceful options"

…

..

.

Sinking his consciousness into his [Stomach], Adam's vision blurred in an instant before he found himself in an ever-infinite void

With a mental command, the Relic of Creation appeared in front of him

The golden ornate stuff had a changed appearance. It's golden color had been twisted into something else, having dark red malicious lines running through its structure as it tried to resist its impending change

Without prompting, strange mist began pouring out of the ornate stuff, one not too dissimilar to the Relic of Knowledge

When the mist completely poured out of the Relic, a strange figure condensed into reality

The figure was similar to Jinn; his skin was blue, glowing, and giving off smoke, similar to the Relic of Creation. He has elongated, pointed ears, which proves his nonhuman identity

He also has short, spiky light blue hair with a long ponytail leading down to his thighs. His eyes are dark blue in the sclerae and pupils and a lighter blue in the irises

Ambrosius, the spirit of the Relic of Creation appeared nude-like and wore only various accessories, all of which were gold: stud earrings, gold ring for his ponytail, arm ring on his left upper arm, bracers on his wrists with chains dangling from them like broken shackles, vine like ornaments on his right thigh and left lower leg and a ankle bracelet on his right and chains around his torso crossing his chest and terminating in point resembling the Relic of Creation

The blue spirit narrowed his eyes at him, opening his mouth fiercely-

"If you lend me your authority, I will deal with Salem"

Before Ambrosius ever got the chance to speak, Adam interrupted him without any mercy

Ambrosius closed his mouth, a frown marring his face as he slightly glared at him- which was something uncharacteristic of him- at least from the information Jinn gave him

Taking a deep breath, the spirit recollected himself as his face turned thoughtful

"Do you have the ability?" 

The blue spirit asked doubtfully 

"If I had.... Would you be willing to do as I say?"

Adam asked back as he saw Ambrosius actually contemplating submission

"Sure" The spirit nodded "If you can permanently kill Salem, I will not mind" 

The silver-haired boy raised his hand, a crackling red aura of pure destruction manifesting on his limb as he waved it in front of the Spirit

"Does this prove I have what it takes?" 

He asked the spirit in front of him, the power of destruction gradually fading from his body

"Hm…" Ambrosius, whose eyes slightly widened at his display, seemed surprised  "This power…!" 

Calming down, the spirit turned to him with a serious look in his eyes "This power has what it takes to kill Salem and lead to humanity's victory..."

As a Spirit and a Relic that was created by Gods, Ambrosius can perceive things on a much deeper scale. 

And although this ability is not as good as his sister, Jinn- he can still realize that the destructive power the silver-haired boy showed was enough to permanently kill Salem if used to its full potential

Trailing off, he bowed slightly "In this case... You can use my power as you wish, and when you kill Salem, this Relic will completely belong to you"

Adam nodded, giving no other response to the spirit's choice of giving up himself for the sake of humanity

Differently from how Jinn only cared about knowledge and nothing else, Ambrosius cares more about humanity- so at the chance that Salem could finally be defeated, he wouldn't mind taking a risk and giving himself up in exchange

"Let's make a contract"

At his voice, a golden magic circle manifested under the spirit, lightin the otherwise dark void

"You will temporarily be my subordinate, and I will use your power however I see fit" The silver-haired boy stated the conditions of the contract clearly "And when I defeat Salem, I will corrupt the Relic with my essence, and make it my property"

These were the conditions of the contract

….  

With the knowledge of the Master-servant contract from the world of Testament of new sister devil- which [Great Sage] easily modified, and in addition to the [Receive] sub-skill of [Gluttony], making a contract with someone is akin to obtaining all of their abilities

He can modify it as he wishes.... Although the Master-servant which had those... sexual side effects will only be used on women

The Master-Servant contract bonds the souls of the Master and the Servant. 

And what do the [Receive] and [Provide] subskills of [Gluttony] do?

[Provide: The user can grant an ability to the subordinates under the user's influence or linked to the user's soul. It can only provide skills that the target is compatible with.

Receive: It is possible to acquire skills from the subordinates under the user's influence. The original owner of the received skill will not lose the skill. Magic and knowledge cannot be transferred.]

Rimuru can give and take skills from his subordinates because the voice of the world acknowledges their position

Or well, the Tensura verse in general allows one to have a genuine boss-subordinate relationship, and it acknowledges this

And in fact, one doesn't necessarily have to be a subordinate to have their skills copied. Being able to directly interact and influence the other person's soul is enough

And that is exactly why Aura and semblances are so important

And in fact…..

[Aura Disruption: Allows one to disrupt an opponent's Aura.

Aura Steal: Allows one to steal the Aura and semblance of other people]

Aura Amplification: Allows one to amplify their own Aura and that of others, effectively increasing the effects of Aura.

Glyphs: Allows one to use Aura to create glyphs that can be used in a variety of ways]

Three incredibly important semblances- Tyrian's, Mercury's, Jaune's, and the Scnee's. Each grants a kind of control of Aura- basically, they grant control of a power of the soul

And, under the influence of [Though Acceleration], and now that he was in his own [Stomach] right in front of the Relic of Creation….

Adam wanted to take it further

[Using [Degenerate] to combine [Aura Disruption], [Aura Steal], [Aura Amplification], [Glyphs]....]

Why could Semblances become skills?

[....Success]

After all, this wasn't the Tensura verse, and he is not currently connected to the world's voice which could define everything as skills

[Skill [Aura Control] has been obtained]

The answer was simple

[Aura Control: The ability to control Aura. This is not normal manipulation.]

[Great Sage] had once usurped the voice of the world to communicate with him

[Whether it is to disrupt, control, amplify, disable, steal, activate, or operate it to achieve various effects….] 

And so, she had the incomplete, insufficient, fragmented, and simple authority to define actual Tensura-verse skills, but only when the abilities that could qualify as such met that criteria

[All is possible with this ability]

And as Adam felt the newfound control he had of his first soul-type power…. He couldn't help but grin in delight

…

..

.

"I accept the contract" 

After a moment of silent contemplation, Ambrosius nodded, not seeing anything wrong with these conditions

The spirit was blinded by its desire to see humanity win this war, so much so that he didn't notice that Adam could easily make this contract permanent, and not keep his word without any consequences

But to be honest, he had other plans in mind

The glowing magic circle gave a bright flash at the blue spirit's agreement, before fading away

"Goodbye, for now"

That was his only final response, before he disappeared from this space, his consciousness receding from his [Stomach] and returning to reality

... 

.. 

. 

Opening his eyes, Adam found himself back to reality, his body still sitting in the same position on his icy throne

Four pairs of eyes looked at him, watching his moves

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The silver-haired boy raised an eyebrow at Rias and Rimuru, Sakura, and Higokumaru

Their gazes were intense, so he was a little puzzled as to why they were looking at him with such fervor

"Nothing" The busty devil shook her head "I was just curious about how you would convince that spirit"

"Yep!" The slime nodded, agreeing with her "But nothing happened to your body, and there was no indication about what you did"

Sakura and her fox companion didn't reply, so they were just curious

Evidently, these first two wanted to see how the silver haired boy would convince the spirit.... 

In short, they wanted to watch a good show, but they couldn't as this event took place in his [Stomach]

"Obviously" Adam rolled his eyes "Unless I ate you and placed you in my [Stomach], you would have never known what happened"

That was the only way they could know what took place.

…. Even the Livestream function of the Chat Room doesn't work in his [Stomach], so they couldn't cheat their way to knowing how he convinced the Spirit

"Also" He continued, looking at them weirdly "Nothing interesting happened, so I don't know why you two are so curious"

The silver-haired boy was confused... It's not worth knowing how he convinced Ambrosius, so why are they curious? 

"Hmph" Rias puffed her cheeks and pouted "I wanted to see a famous scene of 'convincing an enemy to work together to defeat another enemy'"

"Uhuh, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'" Rimuru nodded, once again agreeing with the red-haired girl

"Haah" 

The silver-haired boy exhaled, massaging his temples in exasperation 

He didn't bother arguing about the fact that Ambrosius was never an enemy to begin with

"I won't tell you what happened" 

Adam placed his arms on the throne, a smirk slowly adorning his face

"Tsk" The busty devil clicked her tongue in annoyance at his reluctance 

"...."

The blue-haired girl pouted, mimicking Rias as she looked at him with her wide golden eyes, but without saying anything more

'Women are attracted to mysterious men' 

The silver-haired boy thought silently as he endured, recalling the advice from a random person on YouTube who suggested this in his previous life

Although applying advice from a stranger is not a smart thing to do

…. He has to admit that the guy who suggested this did indeed know what he was talking about

... 

..

. 

----------

A/N:

4.400 words....

Honestly, I am just as surprised

I have pretty much envisioned the ending of this arc completely, so it isn't as difficult to write so much (Especially with my good brother GPT's help)

But after this arc finishes... Honestly, I have already thought about a Mei interlude, but beyond that, I have no idea what to write

Give me some suggestions. I don't want to jump straight to the 3rd eruption. I believe one or two chapters of slice of life would be good