A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the delay. Volume 23 kicked the sh*t out of my motivation to continue, which wasn't helped by suddenly being broke and having a ton of new bills (car insurance for the next 6 months, rent, vehicle registration, plane tickets to go out to see family over the holidays, presents, etc) all hit at the same time. I'm tired fam, and my savings are toast.
Anyway, I'm sort of back to normal now. Still broke, but I think I've found a way to continue and make everything work. I updated Luminous' character sheet, so that's nice.
Anyway, because of all the new information about Luminous that we got in Volume 23, the story I planned is going in a completely different direction from where it was before, but thankfully, I managed to somewhat make up for it and plan out a new story from where I was before.
Not going to lie, most of December, I was thinking of just abandoning this fic and moving on to the one I'm writing about Mushoku Tensei. I really got into writing that one, but decided to finish this first before posting the other one.
.~.~.~.
As my body soared through the air over the Jura Forest in the evening, I tried to occupy my mind the thought of anything other than Shizu's impending death. There were so many ways I could avoid it, but any other result other than Rimuru eating Shizu would end up with a 'bad end' where Veldanava or Feldway wipes everyone, and I doubt I'd survive the literal multiverse imploding if it were to come to that. Still, this, ensuring Chloe is saved by Rimuru, and Rimuru becoming a Demon Lord, are technically the only 'canon events' that I need to ensure occur in order not to get this bad end, and at least the Chloe part will occur without my intervention and Rimuru becoming a Demon Lord would be something I'd ensure happened anyway regardless of the plot just so that my new friend dosen't end up dead.
*Sniff Sniff*
"Smoke?" I thought as I was brought out of my complaining at the sight of smoke rising from the distance.
I rolled my eyes. "Of course I'd get there a bit late," I muttered as I increased my speed.
"Gyaah!" One of the Ogres yelled as they were slashed across the back before turning around and delivering a swift retribution with a strike from their katana against the Orc Elite who had wounded him. "Damn these pigs! There is no end to them!" He complained.
A moment later, a spear pierced through the Ogres' chest as he looked down in shock as the head of the weapon penetrated his torso.
"I-impossible!" He said, falling to his knees.
"Boys! Looks like the first meal of the day is on me!" The Orc who stabbed him called out as he raised the polearm with the half-daead Ogre gate guard on it the the cheering of the others.
"""Orraahhhh!!!!!""" The Orcs cheered.
"Are you sure about that?" I said, emerging from behind the Orc, kicking it in the face.
"Where did he come from!?!" One yelled
"Is that a Kijin!?!" Another gasped.
They were partially right. I'd suppressed my aura to the maximum I could and donned a disguise for this fight. I didn't want anyone to know about 'Veldora's Revival' too quickly and there was no guarantee that the other Demon Lords weren't watching this attack personally. After all, Ogres are powerful Majin. Any individual strong enough to call themselves a Demon Lord would consider them to be prime recruiting material, as evidenced by the still unnamed Hiiro being in the employ of Clayman.
'I should save his group while I'm at it.' I thought as I silently created another clone to run off to find his group. If for no other reason than to get intel on Clayman early. No need to draw this out like in canon.
"Damn! No one said there'd be a Kijin here!" One of the Orc Elites cursed.
I rolled my eyes and bent over, placing my palm on the Ogre's wound. As a tribute to just how tough monsters are compared to humans, the guy was run through both of his lungs and had a cut on his heart, and still wasn't dead. Sure, he was dying, but it still took a while.
Healing magic is easy when you're a True Dragon. The laws of the world just kinda become malleable. We literally breathe magic even more than Demons do. I needn't learn any particular spell, simply knowing how magicules, spiritrons, and the like move and work allows me to weave together just about any spell I can think of, so a nameless spell to heal this one Ogre... It's literally as easy as breathing.
*Cough!*
"I'm- I'm alive?" He asked.
I nodded. "For now. Now go run off and tell the others about the attack." I stated.
The Ogre got up. "I already sent my sister to warn them. I was just going to hold them off... who are you?" He asked.
"I'm Vel... just Vel. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of them." I stated as I stood and materialized a spear before me, twirling it a few times before stopping and pointing it at an Orc who thought of sneak-attacking me while we were talking.
The Ogre didn't argue and ran into the village, which was already waking with activity as the alarm seemed to have been raised. I turned to the Orcs who had made way for what appeared to be an Orc General to approach me. To his right, a masked, fat Majin, and to his left, a small female majin. I'm guessing Tear and Footman.
"Oh-hoh-hohoho! What do we have here, then, Tear?" The rotund majin asked.
"It looks like the secret weapon of the Ogre Village! A full-fledged Kijin of all things!" Tear responded.
"A Kijin! Oh my oh dear! Don't you think that one of those would interfere with our plans to wipe out the Ogres?" Footman asked.
Tear did a little spin. "I don't know, Footman! Let's find out!" Tear stated before she used some sort of art to accelerate herself to super-sonic speeds and aim a kick at my head. If I were a normal Kijin this attack literally would've taken my head off, but since I'm not, I intercepted her kick with a thrust of my spear.
To her credit as a Demon Lord Seed Class Majin, she was ablle to avoid having her leg impaled by the spear thrust I shot at her, but not enough to dodge the followup strike when I transitioned from a thrust into a slash, cutting into her mid-section but not deep enough to fatally wound and barely enough to draw blood. Her fighting style was weird, she could accelerate and stop on a dime before accelerating again in another direction without any clues or hints in body movement.
I raised an eyebrow. Sure, it wasn't like I was going to be wiping them all out here. That'd be boring, and I wanted to work off some steam about the whole Shizu thing but still.
"At-tat ta-tah!" Tear pretended to be hurting worse than what she actually was. "So this is the skill of the Ogre Village's secret weapon! Makes the others who work at the castle look like children." She spoke.
"So you're with Clayman then?" I asked, which got their attention.
"The only person capable of coming up with so many suits of plate mail armor for your Orc Force is a Demon Lord. The only Ogres from this village working for a Demon Lord, are working for Clayman. Do the math." I stated.
"This one is pretty smart for an Ogre." Tear said, much more serious in her voice.
Footman dropped into a crouch. "It seems like we will need to eliminate him then!"
Footman's speed was incredible. It even took me off guard for a moment as I blocked the man's charge with my spear, getting pushed back several feet until I hit the lumbered wall that served as the primary defence of the structure.
I blinked and then ducked under another hyper-fast kick, which blew away the wall, sending tree logs miles into the air and splinters flying over the battlefield. I didn't have any room to make space as I weaved under another kick from Tear, which aimed to take my head off, and then dove forward to avoid a grab, but the fat majin, though not before throwing a quick swipe at him, which he deflected.
'Oh, so that's it!' I thought after analyzing Footman's attacks. He had a Unique Skill that allowed him to increase his power and speed. Sort of like Velgrynd's 'Charity' power, but only at the Unique Level.
Now that I knew why he was hitting so far above his weight class, the fight became much easier.
A couple of thrusts here, a spinning twirl there, surprise sucker punch, and bam! Tear and Footman were down for the count. To be honest, they were more annoying than challenging, especially since I limited myself to only Kijin levels of physical strength but did nothing to change my actual combat skill or processing speed.
The Orcs which had surrounded the village now looked at me with horror in their eyes and a few even took some steps back, ready to flee.
"Don't lose hope!" The Orc General called out, pointing his war axe at me.
"He is bluffing. We all know how strong the Moderate Harliquin Alliance truly is! Do you think a noname Kijin living in the Ogre village could defeat them easily!?! He is probably already out of energy! Now we just need to overwhelm him with our numbers and our strength!" He said, giving hope back to his troops.
"Yeah! He doesn't look so tough!" One of the Orcs cried out.
"Imagine how strong we'll be once we eat him!" Another parroted.
As the Orcs began to rally for a charge, all I could think of was how unfortunate they all were. I'd confirmed that the only people keeping watch were the Dryads. I guess Clayman was so confident in his buddies he didn't even bother to check on them. If he had, I might have at least pretended to do something. Like maybe pretend to sacrifice myself while quietly slipping away, but since he wasn't...
I sucked in some air into my chest. "Fus-Ro Dah!" I cried out as my shout filled with Storm Magic and Magicules tore the force in front of me apart. The trees in the area were also demolished, and a small cone-shaped hole originated from where I stood, and extending out several dozen meters was all that remained of them. It reminded me a bit of that scene in One Punch Man where Sitama threw a punch at Genos, but less extreme.
"That ought to do it." I muttered.
"Wh-WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!?!" I turned around to hear the scream of the person who was behind me, only to see about three dozen Ogres in full Samurai gear looking at me with stunned faces.
"Oh, please, if this is what shocks you, you've not seen anything yet," I explained.
An older man, red-skinned with a goatee, then took several steps forward. It was clear he was the chieftain, so future Benimaru and Shuna's father. "Um, sir Majin..." He began.
"Ah, let me stop you right there," I stated as I dropped my disguise and returned to my human form. "I'm not actually a majin as you'd think. I only disguised myself in case the Demon Lords behind the attack were listening." I stated as I partially unsealed my aura.
The man's eyes went wide. "You are-!" He began but I held up a hand.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm Veldora the Storm Dragon. I came to deal with this threat to blow off some steam, and a friend of mine asked me to, not because I particularly care if the Ogres get wiped by the Orcs." I lied. I needed them to think Rimuru was much more important than he actually is, and that I wouldn't help them in case they were attacked again. This way, they'd believe teaming up with Rimuru is the right call to deal with the Orc Lord.
The Ogre Village Chief was too stunned to say anything but then bowed his head. "Thank you, Lord Veldora, and I know this is impudent of me, but may I ask the name of this... friend?" He asked.
I smirked. "His name is Rimuru. He's a Slime, though a Unique One on par with a Demon Lord Seed, and if you look down on him because of his race, then you'll be making me your enemy, capiche?" I explained.
The village chief bowed again. "Y-yes Lord Veldora! I-If it will please you, I would like to invite you into our village so that we may thank you for your hospitality!" He said.
I shook my head. "Nah, I've got stuff to do, and these guys are connected to Demon Lord Clayman, so this whole situation is complicated enough already, and I have to take care of them," I said, picking up the knocked-out Footman and Tear by their collars. "Besides, a Flame Elemental Ifrit is making trouble at my home village about now, and they are in need of punishment," I said, pointing to a faint glow above the horizon where Ifrit was burning down the forest in an attempt to escape Rimuru, who was pursuing him in an attempt to get Shizu's body back.
My [Universal Detect] covered half the forest, so of course I knew once Ifrit sensed I was too far away to stop him and made a break for it.
"I-I see, then I shall send an envoy to express our thanks at a later date." He said.
"Well, the Orc Lord isn't going to wait for you, and I won't always be in the area, so I suggest you send them sooner rather than later," I said, hovering in the air, still carrying the unconscious majin.
"It will be done so, Lord Veldora!" He said as he scanned the crowd, which now contained villagers.
[Nyarlothotep] pinged, and I sensed this would be a good time to ensure the canon Kijin made it there, so I used [Probability Domination] to ensure he'd pick them with the envoy. Any others weren't my concern, and honestly, I didn't care too much about it. Once Rimuru got set up, Tempest would be fine and could mostly run itself. Yeah, it'd be good for his character development and all if he were to have a similar relationship to Shion as in canon, so if and when she died, he'd have the motivation to become a True Demon Lord, but there were multiple ways of collecting the necessary souls for Evolution if I really needed to.
As I rose into the sky, I sighed again. "I'm one of the top ten strongest people alive at the moment. Why does it feel like I'm so powerless?" I muttered irritably as I took off in the direction of the village.