Never mind the fact that this is the only time we’ve seen this many Demon Lords in one room, this is also the first time we are given fairly comprehensive introductions of the various Demon Lords. We all know why Rimuru’s there—to exact revenge against Clayman for all manner of disrespect against him, his allies and the nation of Tempest. Rimuru is obviously on edge because he realizes that he’s surrounded by some of the most powerful people in the world, but also because he’s eager to expose Clayman to the rest of the Demon Lords. What Rimuru soon realizes is that this thing is bigger than just Clayman, and that he’s probably being controlled from behind the shadows.

On the other hand, Rimuru finds himself face-to-face with Leon Cromwell, whom you should remember as the guy responsible for the summoning of Shizu-san and the otherworlder kids to this world. Cromwell is aware of Rimuru’s existence and seems to have been keeping tabs on our favorite slime, but one of the smallest but most satisfying parts of episode 46 is Cromwell’s open recognition of Rimuru’s form. The conversation they have is brief and Rimuru is unable to hold back his hostility, but Cromwell calmly invites him over to his abode after Walpurgis is over so they can talk.

We smell a showdown coming, and it’s going to be one of the biggest we’ve seen so far. Cromwell’s continued surveillance of Rimuru’s actions proves that he’s worried about something, and of all the Demon Lords, he’s actually been able to deduce the truth behind Rimuru’s Demon Lord ascension, the revival of Veldora and the destruction of Falmuth’s army, but the story is growing in various directions at once, and it’s difficult to know how far things go.

This ongoing conflict between Rimuru and Clayman makes for an interesting juxtaposition of characters. While Rimuru makes allies through organic connections, genuine friendship and earning the overall respect of whomever he comes into contact with, Clayman is depicted as a conniving, controlling master manipulator who treats his comrades and subordinates as if they were mere marionettes. Clayman treats his people like means to an end, while Rimuru treats his allies like means unto themselves. In other words, Rimuru vs. Clayman isn’t just a matter of exacting vengeance, but also a conflict in their very nature and way of leading. Clayman avoids getting his hands dirty, as seen when he sends Mjurran to infiltrate Tempest before discarding her later, or when he used his weird marionette powers to force Yamza, his “Middle Finger”, to consume a strange orb that transformed him into the legendary monster, Charybdis.

Rimuru is depicted as more of an empathetic leader, and we see this in how he offers Mjurran protection under his nation despite the fact that her infiltration and subsequent betrayal lead to the event we call “The Jura Tempest Massacre”. The recurring element of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime has been Rimuru’s ability to get people on his side, which is how he ended up establishing Tempest and having all his adventures, as well as befriending a Catastrophe Class beast. People align themselves with Rimuru because they gravitate towards his openness and ambition of creating a society free from discrimination, or because they think it’ll be a fun ride, while people follow Clayman because of forced servitude as seen with the “Index Finger” Adalman, manipulation through mind control as seen with Milim, and deception as seen with Mjurran. These two conflicting depictions of leadership are at odds as much as it’s about settling scores.

Something that came as a pleasant surprise was Shuna’s fight against the Index Finger, Adalman, which turned out to be a contest of sorcerers. Shuna, despite being a monster, has the ability to tap into holy power through prayer in a way that the now-fallen Adalman once could when he was still a high-level priest of the Church of Luminus. We don’t really get to see Shuna fight, and this time was an absolute delight as she showed complete confidence in her abilities and completely outmatched her opponent. This arc has been showing us that everyone has levelled up a lot since Rimuru’s ascension to Demon Lord, but Shuna’s fight was from start to finish an act of complete badassery!

Clayman confidently starts the meeting of Walpurgis by making a case for why Rimuru doesn’t deserve to have the title of “Demon Lord”, and lies about the conditions surrounding Rimuru’s ascension, further adding that Rimuru also murdered his subordinate Mjurran (whom you should remember was held hostage by him and forced to do his bidding lest he literally crush her heart). Rimuru’s version of events puts the liar in a corner as the rest of the Demon Lords weigh up what they’ve been told.

Clayman quickly turns to violence but is easily beaten up by Shion, whom we can now surmise has power on par with, if not greater than Demon Lord Clayman! It’s super satisfying seeing how Shion throws almighty hands against this guy, especially considering that it was his plotting and scheming that led to her death once, and she pummels him quite badly, it’s beautiful! However, Clayman using Milim, one of the three primordial Demon Lords, is a continued exploration of his compulsion to make people do his bidding, but it’s also interesting how he uses Milim against Rimuru and goes up against Shion instead, opting again to leave his mess to some unfortunate lackey or someone he’s manipulated.

One thing that was a little bit annoying was the justification for Rimuru’s continued ignorance of Milim’s condition—the Great Sage, now Raphael, is at a level where it needs no provocation to assess Rimuru’s environment, yet it doesn’t make any note of the magical item around Milim’s neck. When Rimuru requests an appraisal of the magic at work on Milim’s body, Raphael finds no outside influence on Milim because of semantics—Rimuru said he wanted a magic scan, so a magic scan he got because he didn’t specify that he wanted magical items to be appraised too. Yet one of Raphael’s strengths is how much more “human” it has become, with the ability to express its own disdain and opinions, it’s just oddly (in)convenient that Raphael could not use common sense in that moment, and discern that Rimuru would have better use for a complete assessment of the forces acting upon Milim.

One of Ramillis’s subordinates, a doll-like individual known as Beretta is noticed to have split loyalties between Rimuru and Ramillis. Guy Crimson makes Beretta to pledge their unyielding loyalty to Ramillis before allowing them to intervene in Rimuru’s brawl. Something about Beretta being a former Greater Demon prompts Guy to say something cryptic about the revival of a “Primordial Black”. Guy is one of three known Primordial Demon Lords, the other two being Milim and Ramillis. We have no real reason to speculate this, but we have a hunch that Diablo (or should we say Primordial Black) Rimuru’s new Demon sidekick, is an entity on the same level as the Primordial Demon Lords themselves!