Story: I'm a Daemon, so what?
Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.
Chapter 124: Sarion Restored
Up to chapter 140 is available at [email protected]/theogbasilisk
______________________________________________________________________
- Felix -
"When I came to this goal and developed my dream, I never considered any sort of companionship that would be lasting as possible. And it wouldn't have been if I hadn't been forced to confront some things after I was sent to the past with Chloe." She said honestly. "I never thought I was worthy of such a thing either." She added.
"But." She continued, her voice softer. "I can't say I dislike you either. I think I would dislike it more if I were to allow any obstacles to get in the way at this point."
That caught my attention.
A smirk tugged at my lips. "Is that so?"
"Don't let it go to your head." She warned, pointing a finger at me.
"Me? I'd never." I said dramatically before I leaned forwards. "I don't need an answer now, Hinata. This is your choice, and I don't want you to feel forced into anything. I care about you, and I want you to be happy, whether that's with me or not."
Despite everything, I didn't want to become the kind of person who stopped caring for their close ones; the kind of person that prioritized themselves over everything that also mattered. I may be selfish, but that selfishness was balanced out by my other more positive traits. At least I hope that was the case.
Hinata's eyes widened slightly before she looked to the side, a blush covering her cheeks. She quickly picked up her glass, taking a sip to hide her expression. Once she put it back down, she had regained her control.
I watched as she composed herself; a small smirk still tugging at the corners of my lips. Seeing Hinata embarrassed was always a treat. She was just so adorable about it, though her teaseability had gone down ever since she returned from the past as she had grown up a bit, making moments like this rare.
She cleared her throat. "I appreciate that, Felix."
I leaned back, giving her space. "No rush. I meant what I said."
With that, things devolved into more simple talks. Hinata told me about what she had been doing over the last two days after I left Ruberious. She's mostly been helping in the recovery efforts, while all the direct damage to the infrastructure was repaired by me, that didn't mean that whatever psychological damage that was there was also healed.
Most of the people in Lune, and by extension all of Ruberious, was scared. They were basically the immortal god that had bled for the first time in thousands of years. Before this, Veldora had been the only one who had damaged Ruberious. But now the people who practiced Luminism knew that they weren't as secure as they believed they were.
Most of the details of the attack were kept hidden though, so not many knew that one of those leading the attack was one of their revered Luminaries.
So Hinata and the other Great Saints had been going around, flexing their power to reassure everyone that things would be fine, and it was mostly working.
The people were regaining confidence in Luminous and the Western Holy Church. Luminous already knew that her reputation would likely take a hit after the attack, but she was fine with it as she believed that, with time, the faith of her believers would grow even more.
Hinata then told me about how she scolded Saare for trying to take on Guy, I just listened.
Though that guy had some serious balls, I'd give him that.
He had a good bit of potential too. His Unique Skill let him copy most Arts, so that gave him a very powerful base to build up on. His only challenge was mastering the Arts he copied which is what would stop him from relying on his Skill to reach the very top.
I imagine most Arts that I and those close to me practice would be way too complex for him, but I advised Hinata to create dumbed down versions of the Arts she thought would be good for him, and then have him copy the dumbed down versions.
Hinata sighed, swirling the liquid in her glass before taking another slow sip. "Saare has a lot of potential, but he's reckless. If he keeps pushing himself like that, he's going to end up dead."
I chuckled. "Just be glad he's still alive after trying to take on Guy. He probably let Saare live out of amusement."
The Guy that is heard in legends was described to be an absolute menace to society, a Daemon that ate babies for breakfast, and maybe he was such a Daemon.
He sure as hell wasn't a "good" person. I suppose that said something about me due to the fact that I am still associated with him.
She sighed, rubbing her temples. "I told him the same thing."
She then told me about how Luminous attempted to give Sariel, Lord of Hope over to her as it was Granbell's wish.
I already knew the outcome of such a thing the moment I picked up on Granbell's idea to pass it onto Hinata.
Of course, Sariel rejected her, which I suppose was natural. Its abilities didn't align with Hinata's own. On top of that, I don't think Sariel even suited Hinata. They were a bit too different to be able to work together properly. It may just make Hinata split up her focus, which would be worse for her, in my opinion.
Still, I offered to help her. "If you want, I can still give you Sariel, Lord of Hope. I have the data and I can make it so that it won't resist you."
The reason Sariel could resist Hinata in the first place was due to its nascent ego, since, as a Virtue Series Skill, it had the potential for developing a full-on ego.
I just won't give Hinata a version with the ego. It won't be as powerful as the original, and it won't be rooted as firmly into her soul, but it'll still be something.
Hinata immediately shook her head. "No, Felix. I appreciate the offer, but if I wish to accomplish my goals, power acquired in such a way cannot be relied upon." She said with determination.
I raised a brow at Hinata's words. I understood where she was coming from, but until now she was more than happy to receive Othinus's assistance with evolving and optimizing her Ultimate Skills. I guess that was a little different since it was still Hinata's power in the end, but the principle was similar enough.
"You do know that Othinus already helped you with your other two Ultimate Skills? There's not much harm to do more." I stated.
Hinata nodded. "I do, and I am grateful to you, and your Manas, for that help." She said as she bowed her head.
"Hmph! It's good that she realizes the favor you have shown her!" Othinus huffed in my head.
"Raise your head, I am your teacher and potentially something more, so it's only right that I help you."
Hinata raised her head, her gaze was steady, but there was a fire behind her eyes, one that had been inside of her since the day I met her, but now it seemed to carry a bit more.
"Even still, despite it being hypocritical, I feel like if I continue to rely on your assistance, then I will not grow enough to achieve my dream. Fortuna and Nemesis may have been formed due to your Manas assistance, but I have realized that if I wish to one day reach you, I must walk the rest of this journey on my own." She said with a certain intensity.
I was silent for a moment before I smiled. "Very well then. I'll respect your decision. Other than my teachings, you'll be on your own then."
Evolving Usurper would be tough. It was one of those Unique Skills that had enormous amounts of potential and could fight on the Ultimate level if pushed enough, just like the Sin Series and Virtue Series Unique Skills. Those Skills were built different from the rest and had higher upper caps.
I didn't know what caused this change in mindset in Hinata, but I think it was a good thing. In fact, I was proud of her for taking this step forward.
I think she was right. No matter how impossible I thought it was, she wanted to reach me. I had a feeling I knew why Hinata wanted to reach me, and despite knowing the odds of something like that were low, I couldn't help but cheer her on.
She really had become a wonderful woman.
Hinata smiled. "Thank you for your faith then."
"What is Luminous going to do with Sariel, Lord of Hope then?"
It was pretty contradictory to Luminous's own nature. They shared somewhat similar abilities, but Luminous' Asmodeus, Lord of Lust specialized in vitality and the soul. It was more death aligned, whereas Sariel, Lord of Hope was more life and reincarnation aligned. I imagine having both at once was rather straining for Luminous.
"She said that if she could not find someone to pass it onto, she would seal it."
I nodded. That was a good idea. Luminous was rather skilled with seals as well. She managed to seal Chronoa and isolate her from this timeline so that the Voice of the World doesn't take action for there being a contradiction like that. Something like that is basically unheard of.
Luminous outdid the Voice of the World itself.
"Last I heard, she wished to attempt to give it to Chloe first."
I raised a brow. "Chloe, huh?"
Was she the protagonist of this world or something? Her luck is absurd. She got the ability to redo all her bad ends until she got a timeline she was happy with. Sure, this could be seen as a curse, but without it, Chloe would have just died and had no chance to fix things. Her ability could be seen as a curse or a blessing depending on how you look at it.
Then she got a Manas on accident, a powerful Ultimate Skill that had Hinata's Usurper in it, though from the data I had, the Usurper aspects were at an absolute minimum. It seemed that Usurper was more or less sacrificed for energy mostly, with Chronos, Lord of Space-Time only retaining some aspects of it. She then had two Heroes Eggs which she awakened to get into the same leagues of power as the True Dragons, and now Sariel?
I wasn't jealous or anything since I was more than happy with where I was and what I had, but it was still something I took note of.
I still needed to have that spar I agreed to with Chloe. It had been pushed back a bit due to everything that had happened, but I was still curious about her combat abilities. Plus, she'll probably need someone to fight to get used to Sariel, Lord of Hope, if she does get it.
She didn't awaken the Skill, so she will have a harder time making use of it, even if they are compatible. Though I'm betting having a Manas will offset most of the control issues that Chloe may have. Unless her Manas was an absolute fraud.
"She was arriving to visit Luminous and I when I left. I had to tell her that I would be leaving for some time leaving just Luminous and Chloe."
I nodded. "Hmm, maybe she already has Sariel then."
Hinata nodded with no jealousy. "Perhaps."
We continued to speak a bit more about various things. I shared with her the theory we came up with about Michael, Lord of Justice. About how it may have some control over the Virtue Series Skills.
Othinus was still in the process of looking for something like that within the data of the Virtue Series Skills that I had, but if such a function did exist, it would have to be there from the start, meaning that it was something that Veldanava himself installed. Something like that would be hard to find, even for a Manas like Othinus, so I didn't rush her.
Hopefully, if Chloe does accept Sariel, Lord of Hope, her Manas, Chronoa, is able to deal with any unforeseen events, like if Rudra tried to control Chloe through Michael's domination over Virtue Series Skills, if Michael has such an ability.
It would be pretty annoying if she was mind controlled and became an enemy, but Chronoa was a Manas. She wasn't a top tier one yet, but it would work out fine.
Probably.
Rimuru was also something to worry about. He didn't have just one Virtue Series Skill, but two of them: Uriel, Lord of Vows and Raphael, Lord of Wisdom.
We continued to speak some more.
"You're saying that Luminous is the one who convinced you?" I asked with a raised brow as Hinata explained the conversation she had with Luminous.
Hinata sighed and nodded. "Indeed. However, I do not know why she seemed so eager to convince me to approach you. I would have thought that she would have preferred me to stay away, as the two of you were already lovers."
I stifled my laugh at Hinata's confusion. It seems even she could be clueless about some things. I imagine I knew exactly why Luminous was trying to convince Hinata. The lewd True Ancestor probably just wanted a threesome.
Who knew how long Luminous had been fantasizing about something like that.
I should probably visit her again in a few days after she's had some more time to wrap things up on her end as well.
From what I saw, she has been training quite a bit. Her EP was back to around where it was before she evolved Lust into Asmodeus, Lord of Lust, which cost her a decent chunk of her energy. And then she also consumed the remainder of Granbell's lifeforce after he died, which further boosted her total EP up.
Now she was a decent bit above her old peak energy wise.
"I'm sure she has her reasons." I answered noncommittally.
- Hinata Sakaguchi -
Her eyes groggily opened as she stared at the unfamiliar ceiling. She froze for a few moments before she recalled what led her to where she was. After her conversation with Felix, he had offered her a room for the night, and she accepted.
He did not attempt to push anything like she knew he wouldn't. Felix may have come off as a leech to others, but she knew that he was not completely irredeemable. He knew his boundaries and would never force anyone.
The date with Felix had gone better than she expected it to. It was sudden, so she wouldn't have blamed Felix for something such as going on a walk or a fly. However, he exceeded her expectations by taking her out to the market.
It was simple, but enjoyable. They simply got to enjoy themselves as man and woman in the company of many other such pairings.
It had been quite some time since she got to enjoy herself with the people she was trying to protect. It was good to remind her of why her duties were important, though in this case her duties did not have much correlation to the safety of Felix's people.
Her hand slowly went up her body to grip the second bracelet she had received from Felix. The first bracelet being the one in which her armor and weapons were stored.
One was clearly more valuable than the other, but both were dear to her. However, she found herself appreciating the one she received yesterday. It held no power like the other one, but that was not what mattered to her.
She sighed as she let her hand fall down to her side.
She truly was doomed wasn't she?
Damn Felix.
She sighed again. She used to think that love was simple. You found one you cared for and you stayed with them and built a life with them. That was her simple understanding of it, and perhaps her understanding was correct, but things would never be so simple.
She turned her head, gazing at the light that filtered through the curtains before finally sitting up, brushing a hand through her hair as she let out a soft breath. She stretched her body out, too used to needing to stretch out the stiffness in her limbs, despite not needing to do so anymore.
Despite the unfamiliar bed, she had slept well. She didn't truly need sleep, but she enjoyed it. Sleeping for Spiritual Lifeforms was basically putting them into battery saving mode, allowing them to recover energy quickly. So sleep did have its uses, it just wasn't usually necessary.
Her fingers brushed over the bracelet once more before she finally swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. This was dangerous territory, wasn't it? Allowing herself to feel this way all the time.
Before long, she would become one of those love sick Paladins she used to scold for being too distracted and daydreaming while training.
The talk with Felix after the date had gone well. Felix had laid out his cards on the table and let her make the choice on whether to move forward or not. None of what he said was something that was shocking to her.
His offer to help her in acquiring Sariel, Lord of Hope was unexpected, but appreciated. But she meant what she told him.
After Sariel's rejection, she realized that by relying on Felix, she would never become someone he could rely on himself.
Even his Manas' help counted as his help. And so from now on, she was resolved to not obtain direct help in refining her Skills, her evolutions, or anything like that from Felix.
Perhaps it was pointless to do at this point since she had already received his help, but the logic of it didn't matter to her. All that mattered was that she knew it was something she needed to do.
She would still train and learn from him, of course, as it was an activity that she enjoyed and was reliant upon her own efforts, but nothing more than that she would accept from him.
His assistance in her acquiring both Fortuna, Lord of Odds and Nemesis, Lord of Retribution could not be understated, and while she knew she would have awoken both eventually, Felix's Manas reduced the time and difficulty of such a thing by a significant margin.
It likely also improved upon and added a few functions as well, so she still knew how privileged she was.
At the very least, now she would evolve her Unique Skill with the most potential to its utmost level solely on her own efforts.
She doubted that would be enough, but it would be yet another step in the right direction.
Step by step she would grow to become someone he could rely upon just as she relied upon him. That was her dream along with protecting Humanity.
She did say that she would rather have to work through the obstacles in the way than not move forward with Felix, but that was her underselling it because she did not wish for Felix to think of her as such an easy woman.
The moment she considered no longer interacting with Felix, her core inside of her soul seemed to hurt. She truly valued the relationship she held with him; the teasing, the scolding, everything. She similarly valued many other relationships she held in a similar way, and would not abandon any of them.
Her entire purpose during the later half of her time in the past was quite literally working towards this moment. To confront what she felt for him, to see whether it would work out or not. She just had to try. If she gave up without trying, then she wouldn't be who she was. She wouldn't be a True Hero in that case, either.
And so she returned to this time period, she grew stronger, but her main objective had remained just that: an objective. She was thankful to Luminous for pushing her forward. She knew she would have done so eventually, but it would have been after running through excuse after excuse.
Despite being a True Hero and a Divine Human, she was scared. Every living being felt fear, and so she needed the little push to move forward and confront that fear, and she was glad she did so.
In the end, her and Felix came to an agreement. They would take things slow to see where they went, even though when she was preparing herself for the date yesterday she was half expecting to wake up in his bed the next morning.
She was truly weak to him, to the point that she had been almost disappointed when she realized that he teleported her to a study instead of his room after their date.
Felix was… Felix.
Insufferable, arrogant, a walking headache; there were many more adjectives that could be used to describe him.
But as she got to know him, she accepted those parts of him and was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was more. He wasn't just a bundle full of negative traits! There were small good traits filtered in too!
I should get moving before he decides to be insufferable first thing in the morning.
Of course, as if summoned by her thoughts (she wouldn't have been surprised if he was), she heard a knock from the door.
"You up?" Felix's voice called through the door.
Hinata sighed, rubbing her temple. He had impeccable timing.
She knew his words were for pleasantries sake, as he could sense everything that was going on in the entire city if he wanted to, let alone if she was awake or not in his vicinity.
"I am." She called back as she stood up.
She opened the door for Felix, only to find him leaning against the frame, arms crossed over his chest. He looked happy to see her as he waved.
"Good morning."
She nodded and responded. "Good morning."
She studied him for a moment. He was dressed casually, his coat missing, leaving only the high collared shirt beneath. His hair was slightly wrestled as well, as if he had just run his hand through it carelessly.
"Leaving now?" He asked.
She nodded. "I am. There is still much to do in Ruberious."
Perhaps not as much as she made it seem like, but despite what Luminous said, she was still uncomfortable enjoying herself so frivolously while her subordinates were likely working on the recovery efforts still.
Perhaps once everything was sorted out, she could spend more time here in Felix's territory.
Felix nodded. "I expected as much, I just wanted to wave you goodbye."
She smiled. "Yes, goodbye then Felix. We will speak later."
"See ya." He waved. And with that, she activated her Space-Time Manipulation, teleporting back to Lune, but she couldn't help but feel disappointed at leaving his company.
Maybe, just maybe, she really was doomed.
But right now, she didn't mind that fact so much.
- Felix -
After Hinata left, I decided to begin some of the tasks I had put off. I began arranging the concert that Ingvild asked for, which wasn't all that difficult. I wasn't going to be setting it all up myself. I had people for that, so I just needed to tell them what to do.
I had invitations sent out around, so that people from all over could also come to see Ingvild sing, though that would still be in a while.
Before Hinata went to her room last night I evaluated her progress when it came to manipulating spiritrons, and she was learning very quickly. She couldn't recreate a Disintegration without Faith just yet, but she was getting there. So I quickly showed Hinata the mistakes she was making, and she immediately corrected them, and almost immediately was able to cast Disintegration through spiritron manipulation alone.
I'm pretty sure teaching was one of my hidden talents. Either that, or Hinata was just a genius and needed only minor amounts of help.
Fortuna helped her best when it had more data to work on, so that accelerated her progress significantly. While she still wasn't on the level of skill Granbell was at, at least according to my observation, she was getting there. And with time, she would likely surpass him entirely in that department.
I smiled as I thought back to the conversation that we had last night.
She really had grown.
"I have finished recreating the memories of Sarion, Master." Othinus said.
'That was pretty fast, but I suppose I should have expected that from you.'
It had only been a couple days since I picked Laplace up, after all. But Sarion was a relatively minor figure, though I didn't mean that in an insulting way. Just that Othinus had only really ever tried and was still trying to recreate Veldanava's memories, and in comparison to that, Sarion's memories were just smaller.
"Of course Master!"
I quickly scanned through Sarion's memories with glazed eyes. Most of it wasn't that interesting to me.
He had some interesting techniques, but nothing more than that. I'd probably throw some of them into the rewards center for an obscene amount of points. As while Sarion's techniques weren't much to me, they were leagues better than what the vast majority of the world even knew existed. He was still a genius on his own right after all, and they were the techniques of a True Hero.
He was married to the True Ancestor of the Elves as well, who had far more knowledge than Sarion about those kinds of things, so she helped guide him in the creation of his techniques.
Though the ways he made use of his two Unique Skills was rather interesting. Falsifier didn't really fit my style, so I rarely used it, but I still liked knowing more about how Sarion used it. Plus it was always good for flexing.
Seer was far more my thing, but even its use was limited as I had quite a few ways to predict the future. Seer was just the most simple and straightforward way of doing it.
All the information present in his memories was mostly just stuff I already knew. Though I did learn the exact circumstances behind how Sarion became Laplace which was something.
He was on death's door after fighting the Chaos Dragon and losing, when Kagali or as she was known back then, Kazalim, came in with a deal.
The Chaos Dragon may not have seemed like much to me, but it was still leagues stronger than anything Sarion had faced before. It would low-diff a Saint even, and it had Veldanava's factor. Something Gaia also inherited, which gave Gaia a lot of potential as well.
Sarion went on to make a deal with the devil, knowing that he could lose his memories. In fact, Kazalim stated with confidence that he would lose them, not wanting to deceive Sarion.
But Sarion thought he would be fine for whatever reason. He thought he was built different and went ahead without a second thought, unaware that he would be reborn as a completely different individual after.
Of course, he lost his memories and became Laplace.
The most interesting thing of all in his memories was Sylvia El Ru's cheeks. She really was quite stacked. She really looked like an exact clone of Elmesia, just slightly different proportions and a different hair color.
Was what I was doing considered voyeurism?
Nah.
I didn't think anything more of Sylvia's body, she was physically attractive 100%, but I was above going crazy over only things like that at this point. She was also head over heels for Sarion, and seeing as how love dying out over time wasn't really a thing normally for Spiritual Lifeforms just due to our nature, she was likely still crazy for him even now.
Lucky man, and I wasn't into NTR. I was pure in that way.
Their "courting", if you could call it that, was also pretty amusing. Sylvia basically saw Sarion, how he acted, and his personality, and she immediately realized she wanted him.
Sarion couldn't see it as a clueless shonen main character, but I could see it. After that the rest is history, literally.
Did she technically groom him? He wasn't a child when they met, so probably not. She was still a lot older than him, however. It's probably best if I just don't think about it.
It only took me a moment of real time to go through all of Sarion's memories. Just when I finished, I got a Thought Communication from Arcueid.
"My Lord, I am moving to begin interrogating Gadra if you are ready. If you are busy, then we can do so later" Arcueid sounded into my mind.
"I'll meet you there." I responded.
I could feel Arcueid's happiness through the Thought Communication, causing me to smile. It was hard not to love a woman when she showed so much care, affection, and happiness for simple things.
"Yes!" She responded. "I have also informed Sasha about the state of her mentor and his crimes. She will be present as well if you do not mind, My Lord. She knows to keep quiet."
"Fine by me."
With that I took a step forward, space warping with me as I appeared in the dungeons. One of the deeper levels as well. There were a few floors to the dungeons in my palace. The lower the floor, the more secure it was.
I planned to go to the Sorcerous Dynasty of Sarion now that I had the restored Sarion in my possession, but I can put that off until later. It was one of the last things I wanted to get done before going to the world of Solo Leveling.
Rimuru thought it would be a good idea to reinforce our alliance with them, but I knew it would be fine. I was closer to Elmesia than him and had a good understanding of her character.
I smiled. Speaking of Sarion, I wanted to mess with Evelyn some more later. Elmesia shouldn't have given me such easy and fun access to toying with her if she didn't want me to do so!
But the time was almost approaching to finally visit another world. After passing Laplace on, I wanted to leave. I'd tell Rimuru, Luminous, Hinata, Milim, and everyone that I was going, since time would keep moving in this world. I'll probably go to check the world out and make sure everything is fine before inviting them to have some fun too.
"My Lord." Arcueid called out as she similarly appeared in a similar fashion to me. I noticed that she brought Sasha with her who looked at me nervously as she grabbed the hem of her lab coat.
"Relax, I'm not going to blame you for your mentor's actions. I'm sure Arcueid has already ripped into you enough."
Going by the shiver of fear that Sasha had at my mention of Arcueid, I was probably right.
The three of us made our way to Gadra's cell which was at the end of this floor. It didn't take us long to arrive in front of Gadra's cell. There were tens of enchantments placed on the cell and Gadra, his magic circuits were crippled, the room was reinforced, and more.
He was an old man with a rather long white beard and matching length hair.
His eyes slowly opened to take in our appearance. His gaze stopped at Sasha. "I see, so that's how it is."
Sasha seemed to wilt back at his gaze.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't act as if this was unprovoked, old man. You were invited with peaceful intentions. It's on you that you choose to sneak into a restricted area, and seeing as who you are, we aren't taking any chances." I turned to Arcueid. "I'll leave it to you now, I'll just be observing."
Arcueid nodded. "Very well, My Lord."
And with that, the interrogation began.
- Guy Crimson -
He looked at Rimuru with half lidded eyes. "So you're telling me that Blanc was the one to tame the Council of the West?"
Rimuru nodded as he snacked on a pastry. "Yup."
After arriving in Tempest, Rimuru had escorted him and Rain to a private meeting room to speak. Diablo quickly recovered from his shock, but he would still glare at him and at Rain from time to time.
He really wasn't taking it well that Rain had become a Devil Lord before him. It wasn't like it was impossible to return to their old status of a Devil Lord without a Harvest Festival, it was just exponentially difficult. They still retained their Divinity within them. Something like that could not be taken away, but it was heavily suppressed within them by the World itself, as it did not approve of their presence. It was why they were summoned as mere Arch Daemons to the Cardinal World.
It was only when they properly incarnated that the World tolerated their presence, but nothing more. It did not change the fact that their Divinity was still sealed, leaving them below the status of Devil Lord.
He didn't have much hope for Rain or Misery to return to the status of Devil Lord, as the two didn't care to train, nor did they seem to have any greater ambitions. They were both satisfied with serving him which was disappointing. Thankfully, Felix came in and fixed that issue for him. And it only cost a few hundred thousand souls. It was truly a good deal.
After being led to the meeting room, he had once again asked Rimuru what his motive was. He explained that it was concerning that a Demon Lord was expanding so quickly and taking so much power over the world. Rimuru was destroying his carefully concocted balance with a sledgehammer.
That's when he learned that it wasn't Rimuru who was behind the Council acting oddly.
"What a pain in the ass." He groaned out. He hadn't expected for Felix to be the one behind the newest mess in the West, he didn't seem to be the type. Though knowing Felix, he wasn't actually directly behind it. Felix saw no purpose in seeking political power, for what was political power in the face of true power?
It was likely that Blanc did it all on her own. Guy knew her and her nature quite well; she was the second oldest of them, born just after he was, and one of his rivals back in the Daemon Realm. It was him, Diablo, and Arcueid that reigned at the top of the Daemon Realm in the past, and she enjoyed those kinds of political games. She likely took control over the Council of the West merely because she could; that was all.
He wouldn't need to visit Felix for this at least. He knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't go out of his way to mess up the balance of the world further.
Still, this meeting with Rimuru wasn't for nothing. He got to learn a bit more about the Slime, like his reasoning for acting as he did. The Slime was just as foolish as Rudra. He wanted a world where everyone would get along.
Though, at the very least, he was going about it in a practical way: by making the Humans reliant on him and his country, to the point that they would have no choice but to follow Tempest's rules. It would be peace, just a hollow one. But at the end, that did not seem to matter to Rimuru. He knew the impracticality of his dream, and so he was going about it in the only way he could, through economic domination.
He had made for a fine Demon Lord.
Rimuru had also asked him a few questions about the game that was occurring between him and Rudra. Guy could only guess that Felix informed Rimuru.
Rimuru had asked about the victory condition and such things, to which he answered that there was none. The only rule was that he and Rudra could not confront each other directly. Other than that, they could do what they pleased. The only way to end the game was to force the opponent to admit defeat, die, or the game cannot continue; whichever came first, leaving quite a lot of wiggle room.
Guy did not want Rudra to die, but he knew he didn't have as much control over that at this point due to all the people involved in their game now.
"Will you be leaving now, Guy?" Diablo butted in from behind Rimuru. His lips twitched as he ignored Noir and his irritating ways.
Rimuru sighed. "Be respectful Diablo. Guy is a guest."
Diablo bowed. "I apologize, Lord Rimuru. It seems Rain's ascension has bothered me more than I have realized. May I request a leave of absence to train in the Dungeon?"
Rimuru raised a brow but nodded. "Sure, but we can file that later."
Guy looked down to his empty plate that once had a pile of sweets on it. "Send the recipes for these to Misery for me, would you?" He told Rimuru.
Rimuru's lips twitched but he nodded. He nodded in satisfaction as he stood up from his seat.
As he was preparing to leave, he paused as Rimuru stood up to face him. "One last thing, Guy."
Guy raised a brow as he waited for Rimuru to continue. Rimuru frowned as he unleashed his full Aura, allowing it to press down onto all the occupants of the room.
"Gah!" Rain gasped as she was pressed into the floor, barely able to move under the weight of Rimuru's Aura. The plates and cups shattered into a million particles. The table between them shuddered but managed to stay standing due to the enchantments layered onto it.
"Fufufu, as expected of Lord Rimuru." Diablo muttered.
He didn't allow any sort of expression to show on his face, Rimuru's Aura, while strong, was nothing he couldn't handle. However, he still had an image to keep, so he unleashed enough Aura to push Rimuru's own Aura back. Space cracked in between them as the room shuddered under their collective weight.
"I won't forgive you if your stupid game gets anyone close to me killed, Guy. Don't mistake my cooperation with you for submission." Rimuru spoke out as he raised his hand. That's when he did something that surprised Guy.
In front of his eyes a dark vortex of power formed in front of Rimuru's palm, and like a black hole it sucked in all of his Aura, returning the full force of Rimuru's Aura onto him, but he was too distracted with what he had just seen to worry about Rimuru's slowly rising power.
A grin slowly creeped up on his face as he stared Rimuru in the eyes. "Very well. I will take your words to heart, Rimuru." He said before turning away, his coat billowing through magical winds that he casted. Being a Demon Lord was half about the show after all.
"Come, Rain." He ordered as he left the room. Once Rain had caught up to him he teleported them back to the Ice Continent. He allowed the chilly winds to welcome him as he laughed. "Pfft, ghahaha!"
Rain groaned as he continued with his laughter. "Ugh, talk about an ego breaker." She muttered as she brushed off her clothing.
"Predation was it? What an interesting ability, Rimuru Tempest."
___________________________________________________________________
I am highly motivated by your guys' reviews and likes, so do that! I'll probably keep writing or something.
I have a discord server, come hang out if you want! https://discord.gg/VxR5Gn72Fp I also have a channel in Shiro's Gaming Omniverse.
Links: patreon.com/theogbasilisk
Author's Note:
Sup everyone, back with another chapter of Daemon.
We get to see the rest of Felix and Hinata's conversation as well as her pov of how things went. Hinata is fully on her own now when it comes to power ups so she has quite a bit of work to do. She may seem strong now (she is), but she'd still get mopped by characters that show up later.
Then we get a Guy pov of his visit in Tempest. Hopefully that gave a bit more insight into Rimuru since it was meant to show that Rimuru wasn't just going to give in like a good boy and do what Guy said. He was just dealing with it since it was a waste of energy to get upset at Guy for what happened thousands of years ago.
Anyways, thanks for reading, peace.
Thanks to @Salante and @Flowerman for beta'ing this chapter.
Last bit of editing -Omnax
Support me if you want to read ahead on pat reon *.com* / theogbasilisk