This was an endless plain, dotted with lakes and lush pastures.
Damien chose not to disrupt the environment, instead selecting a relatively barren area. There, he invoked his ultimate skill... God of the Void!
"Rumble~~"
The earth trembled, soil churned, and massive rocks surged before the trio, swiftly forming a cavern.
The cavern's entrance was sealed by an iron gate, its appearance nearly identical to the sealed cave in the Jura Forest.
"Done."
Damien lowered his hand, smiling. "I've created a Dungeon here."
"A Dungeon…"
Velzard, of course, knew what a Dungeon was... she wasn't unfamiliar with Ramiris's elemental domain.
However, she didn't quite grasp the purpose behind Damien's creation.
"Wait!"
Suddenly, a possibility dawned on Velzard.
She stepped forward swiftly and pushed open the Dungeon's gate.
In the next moment, a torrent of magicules poured out from within, and the aura inside was one Velzard knew all too well.
"This is… the sealed cave!!"
"Exactly."
Damien gestured for Velzard and Ogerpon to follow him inside, then closed the gate behind them.
Upon entering the Dungeon, Velzard found the interior environment identical to the sealed cave.
"Did you create a new one? Or…"
"What do you think?"
"It's a gate, isn't it?"
Velzard stated confidently, "You didn't create a new sealed cave in this other world. Instead, you've fixed a passage between two worlds through that gate."
"Not bad, Velzard-nee, sharp as ever!"
Damien nodded in approval, then quickened his pace, leading the two women through the entire underground Dungeon.
And then!
"The Jura Forest…"
From the Dungeon's entrance to its exit…
What appeared before Velzard and Ogerpon was none other than the gate of the cave that once sealed Veldora the Storm Dragon.
"This is one of the fruits of my development with God of the Void~."
"No longer limited to mere travel or traversal."
"I can now connect discovered worlds to the Cardinal World!"
Like a portal, it linked different worlds.
From now on, Damien's journeys to the Konosubaverse would no longer be restricted by frequency or cooldowns.
Among the worlds Damien had recorded, aside from the still-sealed Douluoverse, he could establish similar passages to all others!
"Now, the only thing imposing a cooldown on God of the Void is the exploration of new worlds."
Traversing new worlds still placed a burden on God of the Void.
However, Damien was already devising a solution.
He had an idea.
And this segment of the Konosubaverse he had carved out was the subject of his experiment.
"Evidently, the experiment was a success."
Damien glanced back at the sealed cave, and the trio passed through the underground Dungeon once more, returning to the Konosubaverse.
"Damien!!!!"
At that moment, a blue figure shot into the sky like a meteor from the monster kingdom's capital, speeding toward the sealed cave.
In that brief instant, Rimuru had sensed Damien's presence.
Without a moment's hesitation, she set out to drag this slacking Demon Lord back.
"This…"
Velzard voiced slight concern. "Is that okay?"
"Oh, no problem, no problem."
"Rimuru is actually part of my experiment."
You think I accidentally leaked my presence?
Impossible!
Damien had done it deliberately.
His goal was to draw Rimuru's ire, luring her to test the stability of the passage.
"Boom!!"
Thus, the meteor crashed, and Rimuru gazed at the sealed cave... her old home for so long.
Fuming, she stormed inside.
At first, Rimuru moved swiftly, crossing the upper and middle layers in mere minutes.
But upon entering the lower levels, an invisible force pressed down on her, making her movements increasingly labored.
"What's this?"
Rimuru pressed forward against the pressure.
Soon, however, she found herself unable to advance.
"Did Damien do something?"
"No, that's not right."
Rimuru dismissed the thought.
The force obstructing her carried no trace of Damien's aura.
Or rather, it wasn't energy at all... it was something far more mysterious, more fundamental.
[Notice: An unanalyzable force detected ahead. Continuing forward is not recommended.]
"Huh?"
Rimuru froze.
It was the first time she'd heard Great Sage utter the words 'unanalyzable.'
As the girl hesitated, Damien's voice echoed in her mind.
"Rimuru, do me a favor. Break through this restriction with all your strength, but don't harm the forest outside the cave."
"Damien!!"
Rimuru felt she'd been played by Damien yet again.
First, he'd left her to deal with a mountain of paperwork alone.
Now, he'd lured her here to test something.
"Ugh!!"
"You heartless boss!"
Rimuru shouted, "I'm coming for you, and today I'll hang you from a lamppost!!"
For the next half hour, Rimuru unleashed nearly every trick in her arsenal.
She even employed a ultimate move akin to Damien's fusion with Violet, merging with Great Sage.
Yet…
"Huff~ Huff~"
"Why?"
Rimuru stared at her halted steps at the Dungeon's depths, utterly baffled.
Through Damien's modifications, the sealed cave now had two entrances.
These entrances formed a V-shape, located at the Jura Forest and the northwest corner of Axel City.
Rimuru's current position was the bottom of the V.
Ahead lay the ascending path and stairs leading to the exit in the Konosubaverse.
But…
Rimuru couldn't do it.
Before her stood an unimaginable, invisible force, barring her from exploring the new world.
This wasn't something explainable by mere strength of energy.
It was a matter of fundamental difference!
The path ahead and behind her were as if divided into two worlds.
Between them lay an imperceptible, intangible barrier.
To force her way through, Rimuru would need to confront the barrier of an entire universe.
Don't underestimate this barrier.
Breaking it would mean possessing the power to destroy a universe.
***
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