(tl;dr/spoilers for this chapter: This chapter is just a lousy reason to get Rimuru some time alone for an indefinite amount of time. This, and to hide the fact that I don't remember even half his skills by making him essentially omnipotent. And yes, this is THAT kind of story. Just some trashy OP fanfic)

It had been countless years since his victory against Yuuki Kagurazaka. The first few thousand years in command felt really taxing, no matter how powerful he became. Things really went out of hand when the guys discovered outer space travel.

Skip to a few more millennia and they were running out of planets to conquer. So, Rimuru did something that he at the time thought was a very good idea: create a countless amount of universes for them to explore. In hindsight, he thought it was very irresponsible and stupid.

Things happened. So many that if he were to sit down and talk about it, it would take decades to explain. In short, Milim was appointed as Goddess of the Multiverse. She was responsible of all the good souls' reincarnations. Of course, it was quite hectic at first (understatement of the eon) with her personality and all, but she finally got used to it after the help of some friends (a.k.a. Ramiris).

Speaking of Ramiris, she really matured. Gone was the lazy NEET he once met; she was a hardworking woman who kept order and balance in the multiverse.

Guy, on the other hand, became the Devil of the Multiverse. Nuff said.

Rimuru's top subordinates each took the mantle of gods, devils and the like; each having their own pantheon. One of the bonuses for creating a multiverse containing an infinite amount of universes is that there was no need to share. A rule was made so that the first to mark a universe gets it, and those who came later would have to back off unless they were welcomed by the marker.

Of course, that was the simplified version. Again, too many details to explain. What mattered was that everyone, even the greediest of the demon lords, was satisfied.

As for Rimuru? Well, in order to satisfy all his subordinates' needs, he split himself. One of him for every universe owned by his subordinates. There was one of him in heaven, too. Milim was really demanding when it came to that.

Splitting himself felt like that time he revived himself back as human. He was a parallel existence, having different thoughts at the same time. He didn't like taking in so much information at once, so he thought to split his thoughts as well. Every once in a period of time one of his minds would connect with all of him and share all that he experienced. This, as Ciel concluded, would cause problems for his personality, so he made a rule that all his clones would stay asleep unless things got really messy and that they needed his help to fix it. That way when he reconnected himself, there wouldn't be much of a difference in personality, and that he didn't receive too much information.

His subordinates and friends were distraught to hear it, but after some smooth talking, he convinced them that it was the most efficient and effective way to keep in contact. Of course, the truth didn't really match his reason.

While his reason was sound, the real reason was that he just wanted to retire from his spot. Of course, he still loved them all. He just didn't want to be in charge anymore. He wasn't really needed anymore, anyway.

He made the clones knowing they would probably never wake up, because everyone he knew was powerful enough to handle everything by themselves. Heck, some of them were even better rulers than him.

He thought of this as some kind of unofficial retirement. He wouldn't put it right past them that some of the smarter ones realized his ploy. He was just thankful for everything they've done.

...

Rimuru was in Veldanava's original world. The world's universe was currently void of godly creatures other than him. They'd abandoned this place when they went for their space odyssey. Of course, all of Tempest joined before they left this world behind. All that remained were the mortal races left behind.

Inside some ancient, decrepit ruins, sat one Rimuru on a throne. If one were to look at him, they would think he was a stone statue sitting on an old, decrepit throne. In reality, his body accumulated so much dust that it covered his entirety.

Why did this happen? The reason was that Rimuru was having the rest of his life. He slept soundly for an absurd amount of time for the first time in a long, long time. Ciel didn't have the heart to wake him. Even though he left most of the work to Ciel, he was still very busy at his time of ruling. Ciel was able to do it without much effort because it was one of her strong suits, but her master, as powerful as he was, was once mortal. Stress and mental fatigue piled on her beloved without anywhere to go until now. So, she would wait. Even if she had to wait until the end of time again she would not bother him. She was really proud of him for sticking with it for so long. She thought he really deserved this.

Suddenly, she felt movement coming from the entrance of the ruins. Just before she was about to send the intruders away, she felt her master's consciousness returning. Too happy about the special occurrence, Ciel no longer paid attention to the outsiders.

"Morning, Ciel," Rimuru thought in his mind.

"It is no longer morning, master."

"Mm. How long was I asleep?"

"Five hundred forty two years, nine--"

"Wait, what!?"

Rimuru was shocked. How the heck did he sleep that long?

"You were really tired. All the stress you piled up at work finally caught up to you when you were sleeping. I thought it would be best if I didn't disturb you."

Rimuru fell silent for awhile. He thought it over. While five hundred years was a long time if he were to compare it with human standards, it was not long for him nor any of his friends at all.

"That's fine, Ciel. You did a good job protecting me. I'm sorry you had to wait long."

"For you my master, I would wait forever."

Rimuru felt amused. Ciel really should stop using cheesy pick up lines from Earth's media.

Thunk!

He suddenly heard a noise from across. He sensed the magic in his surroundings and saw several people beyond his door. And, wow. The place became decrepit real quick. He supposed creating a temporary stay with earth magic, no matter how good he was at it, will have it crumble over time.

He decided not to do anything against these explorers. He was curious of what they'd do. Well, aside from taking treasures and making a mess of the place. Not that it had any treasure nor was it any clean in the first place.

He heard the explorers, who were all humans, speak amongst one another in a foreign language.

"Ciel?"

"Download complete. Uploading language to your mind."

And with that he was able to learn their language in an instant.

"Look at this place, Caleb! I guess we really did find an ancient tomb! I wonder who it belonged to."

"I don't know, Marie. But make sure to be extremely careful. Who knows what kind of traps this place has."

The lead explorer, Caleb, was a young man in the middle of his twenties. Wearing an explorer outfit similar to everyone else, this blonde made way to the center of the room.

"W-wow.

"Caleb. I think this is a throne room."

The explorers looked around. They saw gigantic pillars in this rectangle room, all leading towards a staircase on which was an old stone throne.

"Look!"

One of the explorers pointed at the one sitting on the throne.

"That must be the one who used to rule this place."

Caleb and the explorers came closer cautiously while looking for traps along the way.

When they arrived next to the throne, they were able to inspect the statue.

"She's really beautiful."

Caleb exclaimed, getting lost in his own mind.

"Hey! Snap out of it! It's only a statue!" Marie retorted hotly.

But really, none could deny the statue's beauty. It was so detailed that one could be fooled if the statue had color.

"Who was this person? Was she an ancient empress?"

The explorers all spoke to one another, each speculating what they thought.

Which all stopped when they suddenly heard a gasp. They all turned to look at the perpetrator.

The man was old and had a white beard. Charles, their oldest member, was shaking as he was staring at the book and then at the statue back to back.

"D-d--"

The old man hyperventilated.

"Charles? Charles! Calm down, Charles!"

It was clear the old man wasn't having any of it any time soon.

Caleb took the book from him and let the man be. He then showed it to the rest of the explorers.

On the book was a painting of a silver-blue haired woman with golden eyes wearing a dark robe. She sat on a dark throne in a room akin to the place they were in. Behind her, hidden in the shadows was a big black, scaly beast. Its head aligned with the throne below it. It wore a smile that unsettled all that saw it. But the scariest part was not that. Instead, it was the stairs to the throne. Or the lack thereof.

In the painting, below throne the woman sat on was a mountain of bloodied corpses. Each face on the corpse was painted to look like they were in terror and in excruciating pain.

Written beside the painting were its title and the name of its creator:

Power Personified

By Diablo

Bang! Plop. Tock.

The book fell out of his hand and rolled down the stair case.

Diablo.

Caleb knew that a long time ago, an ancient demon descended from the unknown and terrorized the world and its inhabitants. It was said to be so powerful that not even the Council of Heroes could stop it. It did as it pleased and tainted the world with its dark power.

It was just when the world had lost all hope that it stopped. It then vanished. Just like that. It had gone as quick as it had appeared.

Everyone in the room were all thinking the same thing.

If an unparalleled demon proclaimed that this woman was power itself, then they could only imagine what she could do. And according to the painting, she did not do good things. Not with those bodies below her.

At this point, everything was silent. Nothing was heard except for soft breathing.

"W-we should report this to the Council, immediately."

The others nodded.

"Let's leave as soon as possible," Marie looked at the stairs below her, her face extremely pale. She looked like she was going to puke any at any given moment.

"Let's go."

And with that, the group came back to the entrance.

"Ah, wait! That was a priceless book!"

Charles shouted and they all turned around. Everyone tried to look for the fallen book before one of them spoke, their voice clearly shaken.

"Guys...

"Where's the statue?"

All eyes turned towards the throne, only to see that the statue was no longer there.

And with that, someone screamed. And everybody followed.

...

In another place in the ruins, Rimuru was laughing his ass off.