A/N: It seems a lot of people were upset that I created computers and 'modern' technology in a 'fantasy' setting. I thought it was obvious that I did earlier since I referenced Milim playing videogames with Rimuru and how taxes were collected/counted electronically when Gazel Dwargo first visited Altair, but I guess not.
I'll say it once now. I'm not going to change what I wrote. It's not like I'll be having everyone running around with smartphones and on Twitter or something, but I will mention that video gaming and manga/anime became a popular pastime/hobby in Tempest. I don't have an organic way of saying this, but basically, due to the inherent inequality of races due to various factors, pro sports don't really exist either.
If that shatters your world-building and immersion, despite the fact it won't ever be focused on other than for throwaway lines or exposition about the economy, then you are free to leave a negative review. The only reviews I delete are bots. Everyone else that wants to stay, thanks for being open-minded about changing the setting.
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"Rimuru-sama. These people..." Shuna said as she dropped her innocent demeanor and took up a more guarded pose.
"They are the Imperial Knights of the Holy Empire of Ruberios. The one in front of us is Hinata Sakaguchi. Chief of the Knights Templars and one of Shizue-san's students." I say.
"Despite that, they seem rather hostile though..." Shion says as she balances her Odachi on her shoulder, prepared to strike at a moment's notice.
"Well yeah, Ruberios hates monsters so..."
"Indeed. Monsters are a blight that causes nothing but suffering to humans. Is it so wrong that we hate them?" Hinata says. Although she called us a blight, she is very composed and speaks in a rather calm tone, like one you'd talk to among neighbors or acquaintances who you don't dislike, but also don't want to necessarily become friends with.
"Well, that's not exactly fair you know. Humans hurt other humans arguably worse than monsters do. Humans fight wars against each other, pillage, and rape one another, and even sell other humans and demihumans into slavery. They also hunt monsters for their materials. At best, monsters and humans are equal in blight against one another." I retort.
Some of the Templars behind Hinata gain a sweat-drop but say nothing. Of course, the ever stoic Hinata doesn't react at all.
"Shion. Ranga. Take care of the other knights. Try not to kill them if possible, but I've already marked them with [Samsara] so no need to hold back. Shuna, take down the barrier so the others can fight better. I'll deal with this one." I say, unsheathing Yoru.
"Such a strange weapon. Being all black. It must reflect the heart of its owner." Hinata says as she unsheaths Dead-End Rainbow.
"I know I've invaded a few places and I have quite the habit of viciously punishing my enemies, but I don't think my heart is black you know," I say with a sweatdrop.
"Says the one who kidnaps children and mind controls women."
"I never, you know what, no. I'm gonna kick your ass first. Not like you'd listen to me anyway." I say as I charge towards the knight.
*CLANG!*
Our blades instantly meet and Hinata is immediately pushed back slightly. The restriction on my physical strength is immense and I have to channel an absurd amount of magicules to Shion and Ranga through a Soul Corridor for them to have a fighting chance against these Templars, who they could normally defeat easily.
"You certainly are a terrifying beast," Hinata says as she withdraws her blade and throws a punch, landing right inside my gut.
I am launched back quite a distance but I'm not injured in the slightest. I simply decide to add [Knockback Resistance] to my list of skills. I look up to see Hinata has lept towards me, magicules surrounding her blade as she rockets towards me once again.
I jump to the side and a white light explodes from where her sword meets the ground with a rainbow coloring of sparkles. Hinata slowly walks out of the crater while I look on with amusement. I think she honestly believes she has me on the ropes since she seems confident.
"Well, I guess I better get started quickly. Shuna won't take long to break the barrier and I want you to know I could beat you even with this extremely heavy restriction placed on me." I say as I disappear from my spot and reappear next to Hinata.
For the first time since our fight began, her face changes to one of worry and she uses her blade to block our which was aiming to take her head off. Unfortunately, although Dead-End Rainbow is a fantastic weapon, it is no higher than High Relic Class and is easily shattered by my borderline World-Class grade weapon.
Hinata instantly withdraws and looks down on her sword with genuine shock and amazement. I didn't have to read her mind to know she was thinking something along the lines of 'This was the weapon of the legendary hero! How can it be shattered like glass?'
"You seem confused. Your weapon was extremely formidable, but that is only because of its enchantment. The actual quality of the blade was good, but nothing compared to mine."
Hinata looks towards me again and begins using her Unique Skill [Mathmatician] to calculate any chance of victory. Unfortunately for her, she only calculates a 4% chance to successfully escape, and that's only if I let her and she sacrifices all of her subordinates. She is still under the assumption that I mind-controlled Shizue and it isn't exactly private information of my fondness for the opposite sex, so she doesn't want to be captured. Hinata straightens herself and begins to pray with her eyes still focused on me, to anyone who will listen, for a way out of this situation.
[Master. Hinata Sakaguchi is about to awaken as a True Hero!]
"Even if it is hopeless, for the sake of Shizue-sensei. I won't give up without a fight!"
Hinata begins to glow and magicules begin to sweep over her. Her Heroes Egg begins to hatch and I watch on in extreme interest. I copy the flow of magicules since I want to see the difference between a Demon Lord's Evolution and a Hero's Awakening. When I evolved Shizue, I was too preoccupied with not letting Ifrit take over to pay attention.
After a few moments, Hinata appears again, this time slightly more beautifully than before. The broken sword handle she was holding before has been filled in with magical energy creating a blade of purified magicules.
Hinata seems to be shocked by the change but feels the overflowing amount of power running through her body and smiles briefly before regaining her composure.
"You were right before. This weapon was special because of its enchantment, but now-" She says looking over the sword before pointing it at me. "Now it is a match for any weapon. Including yours."
Hinata dashes in front of me and even I am shocked by her current speed, though I still dodge her strike with relative ease. A second strike immediately follows the first and I block it with Yoru.
*Clang!**BAM!*
The both of us are blasted apart by the sudden explosive force of our two weapons clashing.
'Akasha what the hell! Even if her weapon went up a rank due to the purified magicules, that move was similar to a Noble Phantasm's release.'
[Notice! Master, it seems like when you brought the Noble Phantasms to this world, the World System updated. Now it seems like weapons with legends attached to them will become Noble Phantasms if they are 'updated' by the System.
I apologize, I simply copied over the World System when I replaced it. I didn't even consider the possibility that the new features would still work since they were created with [Rule Breaker]]
'I see. So Dead-End Rainbow became a Noble Phantasm equivalent for this world then. That makes things difficult. I don't want to get hit just in case it has the effect of 'Instant death' or something. I won't die, but if this body dies with Ranga, Shion, and Shuna still in the barrier, then Hinata will kill them all. They won't die, but it won't be a pleasant experience.'
"It seems you are hesitant to face my new weapon. Dead-End- no - Remorseful Pillar of the Dead"
"Y-you suck at naming things you know? What are you, a cultivator?" I said as I saw Hinata seemingly take massive damage.
"R-regardless, with Remorseful Pillar, I am finally starting to see the path to victory." She said as she charged at me again.
I jump to the side and give a quick sweep with Yoru and catch her left side. I use the first of Yoru's two major powers it gained after crystallizing in this world. [Anti-Skill]. This is what I used to cut the Orc Disaster Geld in half with, turning off his [Regeneration EX].
I take aim at her [Userper] Unique Skill, since I don't want her becoming any more powerful by fighting me, though when Yoru passes through her without doing any damage, I immediately jump back and become more serious.
"Suprised? I would be too. I simply used my Ultimate Skill for the first time."
"Ultimate Skill? You have one?"
"Indeed. [Eugenides: King of Theft]. I simply 'stole' the damage you were about to do to me. I shall deprive you of everything you possess now. I shall continue to steal your skills until I steal the one that is controlling Shizue-sensei. Then you shall die."
[Notice! Ultimate Skill [Eugenides] works similar to [Beelzebuth]. It will continue to steal random skills from you every time you are hit with her weapon.]
'It's a good thing I didn't get hit yet. What would happen if it stole you?'
[Unknown. It is possible that I would become loyal to her rather than you, though if that isn't the case, then I would take over her body.]
'Its better to not take any chances then.' I think while I stand up straight.
"This has been fun, but I don't feel like losing my partner any time soon, so I shall end it here."
"You think you can just end it now? Do you plan to run away?"
"If this was me before Akasha evolved, then maybe, but now I won't ever run away again. I was simply humoring you before, to make you awaken as a True Hero, but now you have become actually dangerous."
I raise my hand up to the sky and close my palm, using [Concept Magic] to instantly shatter the barrier. Shuna looks a little flustered since she was only a few seconds away from doing it, but I need my full strength to defeat Hinata in an instant without killing her.
Hinata narrows her eyes. It seems that when [Usurper] and [Mathematician] combined together to form her Ultimate Skill, her chance of victory went up, since if I let myself get hit, then she had a very small chance of stealing either [Beelzebuth], which would one-shot me, or [Azura Mazda] which would allow her to create infinite ways to defeat me.
I look towards Hinata and instantly appear beside her again. This time, she barely has the opportunity to slowly turn her eyes to see my fist approaching her face, let alone the reaction time to comprehend 'stealing' the damage.
*BOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!*
Hinata is sent flying multiple kilometers away, crashing through dozens of trees and slamming into a small cliffside before sliding down it and landing on her ass. She is covered in blood and has multiple broken bones. She struggles to look up at me as I appear in front of her again and stab her with Yoru.
Yoru can only damage skills intentionally, so I have to hit her while thinking about the skill I want to disable. Now that she bragged about her new abilities, I knew exactly what to go for. I stab her in the shoulder and she cries out in pain. Now that her Ultimate Skill is temporarily out of commission, I punch her once again in the face, knocking her out cold.
'To be honest, I'm surprised she didn't get knocked out in the first punch.' I thought to myself.
I've even been using [Evolution Magic] to strengthen my body so I'm stronger than Milim in battle mode without [Satanel] active. Is sorta cheating, but I don't really care. The way I've been using [Evolution Magic] on myself is actually quite similar to cultivation, but since I have Infinite Magicules, I have become as strong as is physically possible in this world without the use of Ultimate Skills that directly increase the cap on the physical power a being can possess like Milim has.
I sigh and activate [Beelzebuth] on Hinata. I isolate her in my stomach since I don't want her to 'steal' Veldora and I begin healing her while keeping her unconscious. I make my way back to where the Templars were fighting and see that Shion and Ranga have already finished their job. Shuna, still slightly flustered, had used sleep magic on them all ad with their exhaustion from fighting two S Ranked (in terms of magical capacity) beings, they weren't in any shape to resist and fell.
"Rimuru-sama. You've returned!" ranga said as he ran up to me and begun wagging his tail at ferocious speeds, causing a local weather phenomenon.
I smiled and began to rub his tummy, ignoring Shion who was looking at Ranga with jealousy.
"Shion, if you want me to treat you lie a dog, save that play for the bedroom," I said to which Shuna became beet red and steam exploded from her face. Shion also became flustered but looked away. She didn't deny wanted to be treated like a dog at all...
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...
...
We arrived back in Altair with no issues, since I just used {Gate} to appear outside the city walls and ride right on in. I decide to walk the streets before returning and I notice the various different traders, human and demi-human, running around. I notice quite a few elves here as well, seemingly inspecting the place.
The Elves from the Forest of Trees in western Jura have already come to Ramiris and sworn their eternal allegiance in exchange for freeing their enslaved brethren from around the world.
'I'm not mad they chose Ramiris over me! I'm Not!' I thought while we continued our stroll. we saw Geld being wholesome with some Hobgoblin kids, Gobuta running away from Rigurd while eating ice cream since he was supposed to be on duty, and I even spotted the former Class S playing with Touya, Minori, and Serara. Aura was still with Demiurge since her pets (beasts) were useful for navigating and intimidation in the Abelion Hills and Mare was dragged along with Aura.
I looked at the rooftops and nodded at Souei and his new follower (girlfriend) Souka. It seems they came to check on me when this body returned. They disappear after seeing me acknowledge them. Since it was only those two, I think I may have interrupted a 'date'. I feel bad for Souka, since she loves him so much and, for a spy, he's pretty dense to her feelings.
I shake my head one more time and we walk to the palace. I've got to talk to Shizue about her troublesome student today. Hope she's done with Animal Crossing for the day since this will be a long and complicated talk.
New chappy! Yeah!