The Archetype | Rimuru Tempest x TBATE

Two hours passed in no time, the landscape below shifting subtly as I drew closer to my destination. Here and there, the sunlight filtered through gaps in the trees, casting dappled patterns on the ground below.

I used the time to ponder—to really reflect on the fact that the time I'd spent in this world had exceeded the time I spent in my old one. It's been—how much now? Two and a half years? Almost three, in fact. So much has happened but at the same time, it seemed like it all went by in a flash.

Finally, the miniscule outline of Ashber Town came into view. From above, it looked like a cluster of buildings and a number of other different structures nestled in a clearing, surrounded by a wall of trees that expanded into a dense forest.

I descended slowly, the air growing cooler as I approached the ground. With a thump, I landed on my feet and retracted my wings. Of course, I made sure to wear my copy of the mask that Shizue gave me. Even though it now had a notable crack on its lower left, it still looked as timeless as it once had.

I began walking along the paved streets of Asher. The midday sun here was a little less warm than when I was in the castle.

"Well, makes sense," I muttered, stopping short in front of what seems like a bar establishment. "It's thousands of kilometers away from home, after all."

I turned away.

As I wandered further into the town, I turned to my right and saw a man walking while dragging a girl on a leash like a broken doll. She stumbled behind him, eyes hollow, her wrists bruised and raw. Apparently, these kinds of things were commonplace in this town, and no one batted an eye.

No one.

Not even me.

My casual acceptance of such cruelty made me question myself, but I continued on my way regardless.

I tried expanding my senses until it covered until the outskirts. But no matter how hard I tried to look, there was still nothing suspiciously out of place. No horned and menacing uncanny valleys, no secret cult or military bases of Alacryans—nothing. Just the mundane rhythms of life in a town too small to matter and too quiet to attract trouble. 

It's only been three hours since I've arrived, and I know it's still a bit too early to draw conclusions, but I'm beginning to think there really is nothing here.

I stopped at a small fountain in the center of the square. Its water was murky, the stone edges cracked, but children still played around it, their laughter the only lively sound in this otherwise muted place. I crouched by the edge, brushing my fingers through the cool water.

The ripples distorted my reflection, turning the mask into something more sinister.

"I went all this way," I muttered to myself. "But there was nothing after all. Well, at least I got away from those wretched councilors."

Just as I was about to call it a day, a movement caught my eye. Someone was watching me from the shadows of an alley—a child, perhaps ten or eleven, with dirt-smudged cheeks and calculating eyes far too old for their face.

When our gazes met, they didn't run. Instead, they beckoned with a quick gesture before disappearing deeper into the alley.

Well. This was either going to be interesting or incredibly stupid.

I followed, keeping my senses up for any hint of an ambush. The alley twisted through the back of several buildings, the ground beneath my feet transitioning from cobblestones to packed dirt. The air grew thick with the smell of rotting vegetables and worse things.

The child stopped at a dead end, turning to face me. Up close, with her hood down now, I could see it was a girl, her hair cropped short and ragged.

"You're looking in the wrong places," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "They don't stay in town."

I raised an eyebrow behind my mask. "Oh? Who's 'they'?"

"The ones with the marks. They come at night, take what they want, and disappear into the caves." Her eyes darted nervously to the sides. "Nobody talks about it because the last ones who did... disappeared."

"These caves, though. Where?"

She pointed east, toward where the forest grew denser. "Past the old quarry that's a little further from the stable. But you didn't hear it from me." She turned to go, then paused. "And... if you're really going there, be careful at sunset. That's when they come."

Before I could ask anything else, she slipped away, leaving me alone with this new information and the sinking realization that I wouldn't be heading back to the castle so soon after all.

Sunset, huh? I glanced at the sky. That's around three hours away.

Maybe I should have brought that juice with me after all.

…

Three hours.

Three hours was all I had until sunset, yet here I was, perched on a thick branch near the quarry's edge, watching absolutely nothing happen. The old mining site was exactly what you'd expect—abandoned equipment scattered about, piles of worthless rock, and gaping cave mouths that looked about as welcoming as King Greysunder's disgusting grin.

Now that I think about, that dwarven king and Falmuth's king are pretty similar.

The sun was starting to dip, painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. A cool breeze rustled through the leaves, carrying with it the musty scent of wet stone and decay from the caves below.

"If this turns out to be another dead end..." I muttered, shifting my legs slightly.

I took the time to feel the mana around me, and that's when I noticed something odd—not a disturbance in mana as I'd expected, but rather a complete absence of it. A void where ambient mana should be, centered around one of the cave entrances.

A mana-suppression artifact? 

Movement caught my eye. Something emerged from the leftmost cave, then another. They moved like trained soldiers, alert and coordinated. In the failing light, I could make out what I'd believe to be Alacryan markings carved into the cave walls—similar to the ones carried by the spying artifacts we'd found so far.

Why carve your flags when you're trying to be subtle?

More figures emerged, and my eyes widened slightly. This wasn't just a small group—it was an advance force. Dozens of people were filing out of the cave system, setting up what looked like a makeshift camp. Their equipment was military-grade, but not standard issue. Mercenaries? No—their movements were too disciplined, too coordinated.

Among them was the girl from town, but she wasn't a prisoner as I'd assumed. She moved with the same purpose as the others, helping to establish a perimeter. Her hollow-eyed appearance had been an act—a scout, probably.

She probably knew who I was from the start, too, and lured me here in the guise she'd shown me earlier. Underhanded but effective. Lowly, yes, but it managed to get her job done. Because I'm here. Because I listened. And even though her task was a success, so was mine. The only thing that put me above her was that this worked in my favor… and it worked against hers.

These people have no idea what they're dealing with.

I watched as they efficiently set up defensive positions. These guys aren't random insurgents or cultists—this is a trained military unit operating deep in Dicathen territory. But why all the way here? Why now?

My question was answered as I noticed what they were unloading from the caves—crates of weapons and supplies, yes, but also maps and what looked like communication artifacts that are unsettlingly not like anything I've seen.

This was verbatim a forward operating base.

"Central position, defendable location, multiple escape routes," I muttered to myself, analyzing their setup. "Close enough to major routes for intelligence gathering, far enough to avoid casual discovery. They've been planning this for months. How long have they been here?"

I counted at least forty personnel now, all of them moving with military precision. Among their supplies, I spotted something that truly piqued my interests. Mana-suppression devices, likely what was causing the void I'd sensed—more versatile, potent, and battle-effective than the ones in Dicathen.

That made me all the more certain that these guys were Alacryans and not just Dicathean rebels pretending to be.

The implications were staggering. If Alacrya had managed to insert an entire spec-ops unit this deep into our territory without detection, what else had we missed? How many other 'quiet towns' were harboring similar secrets?

Two choices lay before me: I could either retreat now and report this to the Council, knowing that the delay might allow them to relocate, or...

I stood on my branch, allowing a small smile to form behind my mask. The Council had wanted proof of a threat? Well, they were about to get it—gift-wrapped and slightly singed.

"Evening, ladies and gentlemen," I called out, my voice carrying across the quarry. "I don't suppose you'd all just surrender quietly?"

The reaction was immediate. Forty pairs of eyes snapped to my position, weapons were drawn, and mana began to surge as battle formations were taken.

"Yep. Didn't think so," I added.

The girl who'd been my "informant" barked out orders—definitely an officer—and they immediately grouped into formations of… three? Was this their battle tactics? I could tell in every trio, each one had a different role to play.

"You're surrounded," she called back. "Stand down and you won't be harmed."

As if.

I actually laughed at that. "Surrounded? Please."

I let my aura flare ever so slightly, just enough to make them understand exactly what kind of being they're challenging to a fight.

"Let's make this very simple. Surrender now and at least some of you will live."

A tense silence fell over the quarry. I could see them reassessing, calculating odds, probably wondering if they could get their mana-suppression devices activated in time.

They couldn't. And even if they could, it wouldn't make a difference.

"You have ten seconds to make your decision," I announced cheerfully. "After that, well..." I let the threat hang in the air.

The officer—the hollow-eyed girl—made a sharp gesture. Weapons lowered slightly.

"Five seconds."

She raised her hands slowly. "We surr—"

The rest of her sentence was lost as one of her soldiers launched a fire spell at my position. Amateur. What followed was... messy. Very messy. Let's just say the Council got their proof of a threat, along with forty very subdued prisoners and enough intelligence to keep our analysts busy for months.

And me? Well, I got to go back to my juice. All in all, not a bad day's work.

Though I did have to wonder - if one small town could hide something this big, how many other secrets were lurking in Dicathen's quiet corners? But that was a problem for another day. Right now, I had a very smug report to deliver to some very annoyed Council members.

I never thought there'd be times where I'll love my job.

"Ugh," the officer girl moaned behind me, coughing up blood as she tried to lift herself up—to no avail.

"Stop resisting," I muttered, detaching my voice from any trace of emotion. "It'd make things easier for the both of us."

"Hehehehehe."

Has she gone crazy? The girl's laughter—raw, pained, and unhinged—filled the air. It made me wonder how someone so young ended up in a place like this. What kind of hellhole was Alacrya to forge soldiers like her?

"You're wrong," she rasped, her words punctuated by wet cough. "This made things easier for us. All of us here…" she paused, glancing at her own fallen soldiers. "—are a small price to pay for the head of a Lance."

I felt my eyes narrow at her words. "Oh? What made you think that?"

"That's up to you to find out…" Her lips twisted into a bloodied smirk. "When you find your generals lacking in number the next time you see them."

I take my words back.

This didn't just fail to work in my favor—it completely backfired.

The next thing I know, I was up in the sky—blitzing through the air and scorching through the atmosphere at speeds faster than anything I'd ever reached since becoming a demon lord. How wrong I'd been. Arrogance had blinded me again, just like it did with Hinata Sakaguchi.

I thought everything was progressing so slow, but that was only me. Things have been happening too fast, too sudden. And I was left in the dust—oblivious, unaware, unprepared.

And from that moment, things only got worse.