The World's Ego

End of Festivities

Rimuru POV

I breathed a deep sigh as soon as I returned to my body before the slight mental exhaustion kicked in.

Mm... As expected of Fenghuang Down. It worked better than I thought. It was inconvenient moving in a human body, but well... Everything worked out! The show we put on excited the audience and promoted the labyrinth even more!

"Rimuru?" Ramiris called in worry

"I'm fine. That was a troublesome one, but thankfully, I made it in time." I sighed, holding out a grey feather in my hand, "This was inside the great-spider."

"What's this? A feather?" Ramiris wondered, inspecting the feather

"There is an odd power flowing from it. What did it do?" Diablo asked

"It basically trapped Masayuki's group inside an illusionary cage with a never-dying great-spider. If it wasn't removed, they could have stayed there fighting that great-spider for a long time. It even locked off the Return Whistles, preventing escape." I explained, trying to analyze the feather in my hand, "This one is really going to be a troublesome opponent..."

<Report. The feather is confirmed to have the original Honkai energy as its foundation of power. Furthermore, it carries similar power to Fenghuang Down.>

In other words, someone that can use Fenghuang Down masterfully is the cause of our troubles. But the only person I know that can do this is Hua and...

I closed my eyes to think a little as a figure from Mei's memories flashed in my head.

It is not Hua, the energy wavelength does not match. It's... Oh dear. She's going to be a troublesome opponent if that's the case. Judging from this...

"We have a big problem..." I muttered in thought

"Did you figure out who our culprit is?" Ramiris asked

I nod in response, "I did, and I'm sure Sakura, Mobius, and Iris did too."

"Yeah, but I can't figure out which one it is." Mobius shrugged and Sakura nods in agreement

Right, they never met her before since we are from different eras.

"I recognize the energy pattern. But Lady Mother, how could she exist here? Did you..." Iris trailed off, her eyes glancing over to Ramiris

I shook my head, "I did not detect her and neither did my skills pick up on her existence. She somehow managed to fly under my radar."

"Then there are two possibilities to this case. I don't know which one you two are talking about, but these explanations might shine some light on the case. One of the possibilities is that she existed way before your evolution and is already possessing a human vessel. And the other possibility... Someone was already carrying her core, but she remained asleep inside her vessel until something happened and she awakened before coming to the nation. Does any of these make sense?" Mobius asked, looking at the both of us

I gasped silently after searching through Mei's memories, "Actually... both possibilities could be the case." 

"Seriously?"

"Mm. I agree. Both seem highly likely to be the reason she was able to avoid detection up until now. Think of it this way. The vessel has already undergone gene fusion and the SWARA experiment so her body could hide this core." I explained to her

Mobius grits her teeth at this explanation, "You're saying that the vessel is a Flame-chaser?!"

Giving her a nod, I gave her the answer, "It's the Herrscher of Sentience, who had possession of Hua's body before, according to Mei's memories."