Chapter 1416: The Root . . . An unforgiving darkness engulfed my entire being. I could feel my very existence fragment apart with each small piece disappearing into nothingness. The void was welcoming me yet I wasn't sorrowful nor was I scared, I felt calm. But I also felt confused. What was going to happen to me? Was I going to truly die? Would I finally disappear? The power of Flora's fruit was too much, my Dimensional Stomach fragmented and shattered, the energy engulfed the interior of my very being, the Origin Core shattered into pieces, my soul and body quickly evaporated with it. I was quick enough to teleport my entire divine realm inside of Rimuru and fuse it with her divine realm to save everybody, I also teleported them away with my last strength, while leaving on Rimuru a fragment of all my path jewels, as it seemed that I didn't had enough time to meticulously take out each one of them to give them to her in that small time frame. As darkness engulfed me… I can be happy that at the very least, I managed to save them, my precious family… Without them, I wouldn't be anything. Rimuru is strong, I am sure that she can take care of them… I smiled one last time to her, as I felt like my entire consciousness started to fade away, every single one of my clones evaporated with me, at least those that have not evolved into people of their own, as those seemed spared from my Origin Core shattering as they had formed their own by now… I was… nowhere now. This is it, the void. The endless darkness of death. I felt calm, yet regretful. An attack of agonizing sorrow hit me. I remembered my mother, Chaos, my beloved wives, my children, my friends, everyone… All the things I made… And now, I was dead. Was I? Why was my consciousness slowly tearing apart instead of just disappearing? Why am I able to think though? What… is happening? Is this truly the end? "No, it is not." The voice of someone, or something, spoke to me. Who was this person? I had never heard such a voice before, my mother's voice was soft, so it couldn't be she. Who is this? "Who are you?" I asked to the void, my voice was unheard but I sensed it, and the voice did so as well. "I am what they call The Root." "Eh? The Root?" "This is the end of the road. Where all things are archived infinitely. The Root of all Existence and Creation, where all Original Timelines surged, endlessly, I continue rooting endlessly, I am the end and the beginning." "W-Wha…?" "You're dead, Kireina #19290091029 from Dimensional Existence #198298219201920183872982920192." "Eeeeh?" "For some reason, due to the powers within your Trait, it seems that your own consciousness exists in any iteration of your own being. Therefore, this archival of your existence has taken your main consciousness, what you would call a "soul" or "spirit"…" "What?" "This is not the first time this has happened as there had been several iterations of other entities across the vast Existence and Inexistence that had done the same. But this is the first time it happens in eons." "So I am somehow alive?" "Technically, no. It is hard for me to provide further information; I am not used to speak so much with an individual because my existence as a whole possess no ego. Further speaking with an individual will create an ego, which will separate from the main existence of my existence, and therefore, another iteration of The Root with an ego will be formed. I seek to not commit the same mistake after the millionth time." "…" "Your silence is reassuring, now keep in silence for eternity." "Wait! No!" "You must be aware that your own existence is an archive of your own. Do you remember the time you summoned Aldrich? That man was dead but by connection your power to the Origin Root of the Netherworld Plane, you were able to resurrect him. This is the same, you're an archive, unless someone manages to do such an incredible summon, you cannot come back." "What?! How can there be someone capable of summoning me anyways?" "There are countless possibilities and countless timelines. The possibility for anything is simply waiting to emerge. You will be brought back from death in 3… 2… 1." Suddenly, as I was thinking what the heck was happening, my whole existence was pulled out of something, and for a split of a second, my vision was able to see where I was, The Root. It felt as I was seeing an endless cosmos, but it wasn't really that, it was endless amounts of endless cosmos converging constantly and generating all sorts of psychedelic hallucinations using all sorts of geometric forms converging together endlessly. And in the middle of all of that, there were tree-like roots expanding endlessly to all directions, in the center of all roots there was a bright light illuminating all of endless creation which continued to expand endlessly. And within this light, there was a throne, a seat, I could barely see who it was, but I was very sure there was a woman sitting there, resembling a human, smiling back at me. She had long black hair, slightly tanned skin, and brown eyes. She wore a black dress and a witch-like hat of black color as well. Her smile was charming, and somehow, I felt attracted to her presence, but I wasn't even able to say a thing before I was pulled somewhere else. "I am not done with your adventures yet, Kireina." She said, as I felt that I was suddenly dragged elsewhere. … When I opened my eyes, I felt like I finally had a body. I was me! And… Huh? I looked around my surroundings and found something quite insane. There was a giant throne room, and countless people wearing knight armor lined up from left to right, there was a beautiful elf magician in front of me looking at me in horror, and there was a guy with a long white beard resembling a king sitting right in front of me with a princess at his side, a blonde beauty. "Please, Hero, save the Kingdom from the Demon King- What the heck is that?!" The King and everyone else was horrified when they saw me. "Hey, what's wrong? Am I not pretty?" I wondered, looking at my own body, I realized there was something extremely wrong going on. I was a dog-sized caterpillar. Oh well, back to my humble beginnings I guess. -----