(Third Person POV — Nico)
Nico was exhausted. From the moment he had woken up that morning, his energy levels had been absolutely abysmal.
Usually, he was a morning person, and he had initially thought he'd somehow just had poor sleep, but the lethargy only intensified as the day crawled on. It felt as if his very life force were being slowly drained by an invisible straw, leaving him hollowed out and fragile.
Work was a soul-crushing drag. His boss had been helicoptering around his desk for most of the afternoon, and the report they needed to send to investors was making everyone high-strung and irritable.
Even though Nico was dragging his feet by midday, he managed to finish the document and finally breathed a sigh of relief. His head was thumping; the fluorescent lights of the office felt as if they were piercing right through his skull, agonizing and relentless.
From there, he went to the gym, a choice driven by habit rather than any real motivation. Coffee had done nothing for him; he was practically nodding off between sets of heavy squats.
One of his workout buddies looked genuinely concerned, as everything Nico tried to do was performed with extreme difficulty. It was as if he were moving through thick molasses while wearing a suit of lead, his coordination slipping with every rep.
Now, he was dragging himself out of the apartment elevator, praying for the sweet, silent comfort of his bed. Surely there was a medical explanation for this, perhaps severe anemia or a sudden virus, but at this point in the day, he only wanted to crawl under the sheets and pass out.
Dinner wasn't an appetizing concept, and a shower? He could deal with the grime tomorrow. It was Friday; that meant he could sleep as much as humanly possible throughout the weekend.
"Damn," Nico whispered, dropping his keys as he fumbled to unlock the front door. Bending over was agonizing, a sharp protest from every muscle in his back, but he managed to pick them back up and get the door open.
Each step was getting heavier by the moment, and he decided to ignore taking off his shoes entirely. With stumbling steps, he moved through the darkness of the main corridor, turning the corner and moving past the living room. Only a few more steps remained.
There she was. The object of all his daydreams: the queen-sized mattress. Stumbling forward, Nico's whole body became almost boneless as it fell into the sweet embrace of the mattress.
"Thank God," he muttered with a groan. With relative difficulty, he managed to move around enough to get the blankets over his body, cocooning himself like a human burrito. With that sensation, his eyes fluttered closed, and the land of dreams waited for him.
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Pain.
So much damn pain.
Wasn't he supposed to be asleep? Why the hell was he feeling a thousand times worse than he was before? Nico didn't know the best way to describe the agony he was currently feeling: a blender, being dipped in a volcano, or being thrown directly into the heart of the sun.
It was getting worse and worse; his body was suffocating, being burned from the inside and outside simultaneously. He could feel his muscles tearing, his oxygen being deprived, and his very soul being evaporated second by second. It was the sensation of his existence being erased from the bottom up.
Cracking an eye open, he expected to find the blanket around him, possibly suffocating him. Instead, he wasn't even in his room. The world surrounding him was a complete and utter blank, a dark void, but there were pockets of space rippling with swirls of silver, gold, violet, and green appearing before bursting like cosmic bubbles.
Each burst brought unending pain throughout his body, mind, and soul. How had he gotten here, and what was 'here'? It reminded him of those stories he'd once read about dimensional spaces or pockets of space devoid of life: a cosmic blender of pure, volatile energy.
I'm going to die.
Nico could barely think anymore, and he realized then that he'd been screaming the entire time. His throat was already raw, possibly torn up from the inside. He could feel "liquid," perhaps blood or his very essence, dripping from his eyes, nose, and mouth. His skin was cracked, fracturing and breaking down into nothingness.
< EMERGENCY PROTOCOL INITIALIZED >
< NOTICE: User 'Nico' is undergoing complete molecular dissolution. >
< Template: [Peak Light Novel Rimuru Tempest] — Commencing Forced Integration. >
Nico assumed he was hallucinating in the final moments of his life. He had always had a vivid imagination, and he was a massive fan of anything close to entertainment: light novels, comics, anime, and movies.
But this? He was so desperate to rationalize the situation that he was imagining a Template System based on Rimuru Tempest. To his dying mind, it was just stupid, a last-ditch effort of a collapsing brain.
As he tried to understand the situation, a sudden point of clarity shot through his mind. He still hadn't died, and the pain was disappearing slowly. It was as if he were being dunked in a cool liquid; his entire body was stitching back together, but there was something else wrong.
His perspective was shifting, growing smaller and more compact. His vision was dimming quickly, and the feeling of his limbs was disappearing. He tried to tell himself it was just the hallucination ending as his senses finally failed and the darkness claimed him.
< NOTICE: Critical Biological Failure Terminated. >
< [Physiology]: Human DNA, organs, and skeletal structure have been purged and converted into High-Density Magicule Fluid. >
< [Vessel Status]: Species changed from [Human] to [Viscous Spirit Slime]. >
< [Vital Signs]: Respiration, heartbeat, and blood pressure are no longer required for existence. >
The words weren't just thoughts; they were etched into his consciousness. This was the exact same situation that Rimuru had gone through in the novels. Nico wondered if he was actually turning into a Slime. It seemed impossible, but if it were real, he had a chance of surviving wherever the hell he had woken up.
< NOTICE: Intrinsic Resistances Successfully Integrated. >
< [Cancel Pain]: (ACTIVE) — All sensory feedback related to the preceding physical trauma has been discarded. >
< [Thermal Fluctuation Resistance]: Internal temperature is now independent of the void's environment. >
< [Corrosion Resistance]: The molecular breakdown of the soul via Dimensional Gap energy has been neutralized. >
The Dimensional Gap.
Nico knew exactly where he was now. He couldn't fathom how he had gone to sleep in his bed and woken up in a made-up place from High School DxD. Perhaps that was why he had been so tired all day; his soul was likely being pulled across the veil by the sheer pressure of the rift.
His eyesight had completely disappeared while he was reading the notices. The world was now devoid of any semblance of light. He couldn't feel his body anymore, which just meant that he was truly a slime, yet his consciousness was still functioning.
What was he supposed to do now? Rimuru had been in a cave when he woke up, moving around and consuming things to grow. If he had the Template, did that mean he could just hang around and eventually gain those abilities without doing much? He feared he would go insane in the meantime.
< NOTICE: Extra Skill [Magic Sense] — Activated. >
< [Function]: Environment is now perceived through the vibration of magicules and information particles. >
< [Range]: 360-degree awareness established. The concept of "Blindness" is nullified. >
< NOTICE: Initialization of [Analytical Engine] (Pre-Great Sage). >
< [Function]: Logic processing is now being offloaded from the failing human subconscious to the System's core. >
Suddenly, Nico's human panic vanished. It didn't disappear; it just became irrelevant. His mind cleared, offloading the terror to a processor that didn't feel fear.
He could see again, though it wasn't sight. It was a 360-degree sonar map of the turbulent atmosphere, showing the raw energy appearing and disappearing in the Gap. The volatile nature of the Dimensional Gap was clearer than anything he had ever seen before.
He was a small, blue sphere of high-density magicules, floating in a storm of infinite power. The pressure was immense, even with his resistances. He was barely holding together.
< NOTICE: Intrinsic Skills Successfully Anchored. >
< [Self-Regeneration]: High-speed cellular and spiritual reconstruction is operational. >
< [Absorb]: The system has begun harvesting chaotic energy from the Dimensional Gap to fuel Synchronization. >
< NOTICE: Synchronization Milestone Reached: 1.0%. >
< WARNING: High-Level Cognitive Dissonance Detected in Host 'Nico'. >
< PROPOSAL: Initiate [Evolutionary Sleep]? >
< [Objective]: Automate the transition to 30.0% Synchronization. >
< [Outcome]: Reconstruct Humanoid Vessel and Awakening as a True Demon Lord. >
The logic clicked for him: in this void, there were no souls to harvest, but the "chaotic energy" of the Gap was a more than suitable substitute for the 10,000 souls usually required for a Harvest Festival.
He was essentially consuming the foundation of the DxD universe to fuel his evolution.
Staying awake meant years of isolation and potential mental fracture. Even with the Analytical Engine, he would eventually lose his sense of self.
< NOTICE: All parameters for [Evolutionary Sleep] are locked. >
< [Current Status]: 1.0% Synchronization. >
< [Target Status]: 30.0% Synchronization. >
< [Objective Duration]: 1,019 Days. >
< [Subjective Duration]: 0.00001 Seconds. >
< WARNING: Upon awakening, the host's 'Self-Identity' may experience a momentary disconnect due to the transition from 'Fragile Human' to 'Awakened Demon Lord.' >
< [Safety Protocol]: Raphael will manage the ego-reintegration sequence during the final 48 hours of sleep. >
< PROCEED WITH HIBERNATION? >
Nearly three years would pass in the outside world. By the time he woke up, he wouldn't be human anymore. He wouldn't even be a "weak" slime. He would be a calamity-class existence.
Sure, proceed with hibernation, he thought, as his consciousness blinked away.
The void didn't feel cold anymore. It felt like home. And then, he was gone.
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This is an original work, not a translation.
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