บท 4: Deadly Diva, Testarossa!
Ciel: <>
Voice of the World: <<>>
******
It has been a week since Rimuru took Goblins and Direwolves under his wing, evolving them into Hobgoblins and Tempest Wolves. However, he didn't just evolve them, but he also implanted them with diverse knowledge and entrusted them with the responsibility of developing the village.
During this period, Rimuru closely observed the villagers and their ability to perform tasks they were previously unfamiliar with, solely relying on the implanted knowledge. To his pleasant surprise, the Hobgoblins not only adapted well but also exceeded his expectations. Within the week, they managed to construct habitable mud huts and fashion reasonably decent clothing.
However, while their achievements were commendable, they still fell short of the level of craftsmanship exhibited by experts like Kaijin and his brothers, or the expertise in construction like Geld and his people. This was mainly because the Hobgoblins, who had previously lived in makeshift habitats, lacked practical experience in construction and craftsmanship. Overall, Rimuru was impressed by their performance, but both he and the Hobgoblins themselves agreed that they would need professional assistance to further develop their village.
Besides the development team, there were other teams composed of villagers who couldn't contribute much to development, such as the Hobgoblins, who excelled in combat, and the wolves, who lacked the skills for building and crafting. Therefore, they were assigned to different teams, like the Hunting Team, which focused on procuring food for the village, and the Area-Clearing Team, responsible for clearing the forest around the village to improve visibility and gather the wood needed for future village expansion.
While Rimuru was busy observing the village, inside his imaginary space, he used his skill [Parallel Existence] to train with Veldora, hoping to make him as strong as he was in their previous timeline. In that earlier timeline, Veldora spent a year in Rimuru's stomach before Rimuru evolved into a Demon Lord and released him back into the world. During that one year though, with the help of Raphael, Veldora had become strong enough to go toe to toe against Velgrynd. That's why, Rimuru was determined to make his brother even stronger this time.
Returning to the topic of village development, Rimuru had decided that it was finally time to visit Dwargwan. However, he didn't want to go alone, and he certainly wasn't going to take Gobata with him. So, before announcing his departure to the villagers, he decided to swing by Veldora's cave and create an anti-detection barrier because it was time to summon another one of his subordinates.
'Ciel, will you do the honors?'
<Of course, Master. Leave it to me.>
******
The Demon Realm is a bizarre place, where demons come into being as lesser demons and spend their time endlessly fighting each other, as the concept of time holds little sway over these ageless creatures.
Yet, even in this strange realm, hierarchy exists. At its pinnacle are the Primordials, the oldest and most extraordinarily powerful daemons. Currently, four of these Primordials out of the seven known ones rule their self-proclaimed territories within the Demon Realm.
Blanc, infamously known as the White Primordial, is one such demon. Her status is reflected in her appearance, with crimson red eyes, silky white hair, and an elegant charm adorning her face. At this moment, she sits in her mansion, sipping tea, while two of her subordinates stand dutifully behind her, ready to serve their lady.
Suddenly, Blanc felt someone attempting to summon her—no, it was more than that. Someone was specifically targeting her for the summoning. Normally, she would have answered the call, entertained the summoner's request, and then made the summoner regret ever summoning her. However, she wasn't in the mood at the moment, so she decided to deny the request. However, it didn't work, and a blinding flash of light forcefully summoned her to the overworld.
As the blinding light subsided, Blanc found herself in a cave, standing in front of a blue-haired figure. She wanted to say it was a human due to lack of any presence but her instincts and centuries of experience told her otherwise. Caution guided her actions, and instead of hostility, she initiated a conversation and asked, 'Who are you?' She inquired while subtly surveying her surroundings and noting the presence of some kind of barrier around them.
"Hi, my name is Rimuru Tempest," Rimuru said, wearing a charming smile that even she had to admit was on a whole different level. "And you must be Blanc, the White Primordial."
"You know who I am..." she responded with narrowed eyes, although she knew that much since she was specifically targeted by his summoning spell. "So, what business do you have with me? But before you speak, you should know that even if we make a deal or not, this situation is already in my favor from the moment you made the mistake of summoning me," she continued, a wicked smirk playing on her lips as she released a bit of her aura. To her surprise, Rimuru didn't even flinch upon sensing her aura. Instead, he just chuckled at her attempt to intimidate him, which only further fueled her rage.
"Don't worry, a deal won't be necessary," Rimuru dismissively waved his hand. "After all, I want you to become my subordinate, more specifically, my personal secretary."
For the first few seconds, his words didn't even register in her system. When they finally did, her crimson eyes showed uncontained rage as she glared at Rimuru and asked, "How dare you?" Her voice was calm, but she raised it slightly, maintaining her elegant demeanor. "Who do you think you are to suggest that a Primordial demon such as myself would serve under an inferior Majin like you?"
"Now, now, Blanc, calm down. Anger doesn't suit that beautiful face of yours," Rimuru said with a cheeky smile, while Blanc just rolled her eyes. "Let's make a bet: for the next five minutes, if you don't manage to land a hit on me, you have to become my subordinate," Rimuru suggested.
"And what do I get if I do manage to land a hit, aside from your life?" she said, still glaring at the blue-haired man in front of her.
"Good point," Rimuru nodded. "How about this: if you manage to land a hit on me, I will create a new body for you before you kill me," he said with a smile.
'Is he crazy?' Blanc thought, bewildered by his offer, which appeared to be completely in her favor. But it wasn't like she cared; after all, she was the one benefiting from this deal. "Fine, but don't complain if this ends in under a minute," she said.
"We'll see about that," Rimuru said, maintaining his smile. His demeanor was starting to irritate her. Not to mention how she couldn't help but notice his lack of fear or caution even though he was standing in front of a fearsome demoness like her as well as the absence of any kind of fighting stance.
'I will show him what happens when you mess with a Primordial demon,' she thought and created a dark-colored ball in her hand, known as the Abyss Core. It was formed by aggregating mana into a core until it could no longer be compressed. "I'm going to end this in one move," she declared and fired the Abyss Core at Rimuru. It shot toward him at blinding speed.
In response, Rimuru simply raised his hand and devoured her attack with [Azathoth]. Blanc stared at him with wide eyes and a bewildered expression on her face. She wasn't about to be discouraged by one of her attacks being nullified, though. She created ten cores simultaneously and once again launched them at Rimuru. Yet again, the blue-haired man repeated the same motion as before and consumed her attack.
"Abyss cores, huh? A nice and powerful attack, but, unfortunately, projectiles won't work on me," Rimuru nonchalantly remarked.
"I see..." Blanc said, trying to contain her rage and barely succeeding. "If I can't use projectiles, then I will just have to get up close and personal," she declared as she materialized a dark-colored whip in her hand and rushed at Rimuru.
And then just as she was about to strike him, he suddenly vanished from her sight. "Huh? Where did he..." Blanc began to question, but before she could complete her sentence, she felt a presence behind her.
"Wow, your hair is really smooth," Rimuru, now behind her, commented as he observed her hair.
Ignoring his comment, Blanc attempted to backhand him, but once again, he vanished and appeared in front of her, flicking her forehead. "Too slow," he chuckled and vanished again as Blanc tried to attack him.
This continued for three minutes until Blanc felt mentally exhausted, humiliated, and on the verge of giving in to her rage, were it not for the need to maintain her elegant image in front of this person who had reduced her to this. Finally, she decided to take a deep breath and acknowledged that the opponent she was facing right now was strong... perhaps even stronger than her. But she still had one trump card that she was sure would end this fight.
"Rimuru Tempest, I, Blanc, one of the seven Primordials, acknowledge your strength," she said as a dark aura surrounded her body. "But this is where it ends. Now, be grateful and feast your eyes upon my most beautiful magic." She spread out her hands and closed her eyes. "Nuclear Magic: Blessing of Death."
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes, expecting to see the Majin dead. However, her eyes widened in shock when she saw Rimuru standing there, looking at her with an amused smile, as he asked, "Was that supposed to do something?" Blanc couldn't answer. After all, upon casting Blessing of Death, the probability of death exceeds 99.999%, with one in a million having the potential to survive the technique. She wasn't sure if the man in front of her was actually that strong or just had incredible luck.
Then, a self-mocking smile appeared on her face. 'There's no point in deluding myself anymore,' she thought. 'Surviving 'Blessing of Death' is a one-in-a-million phenomenon, and I'm certain that he didn't put up any barrier around himself either. That means... he just shrugged off my strongest attack.'
"Come on, don't lose hope now; you still have a minute left," Rimuru said, trying to encourage her.
"No, that won't be necessary," Blanc smiled. "I'm not as stubborn or battle-hungry as Jaune or Violet, so I can recognize when I'm outmatched. But still... before I accept you as my master, I have a request."
"Sure, what is it?" Rimuru asked.
"I want you to use your strongest attack on me," she requested. "When I was attacking you earlier, you refused to take me seriously and treated me like one would treat a child. I won't lie, that hurt my pride. But now that I've realized you're stronger than me, I want to see how much of a difference in strength we really have. So please, show me your strongest attack."
"My strongest attack, huh?" Rimuru thought for a moment. Then he looked at her and said, "Sure, that works for me." In the next moment, for Blanc, everything went dark.
The very next moment, light returned to her eyes, but to her surprise, she wasn't in a cave anymore. Instead, she found herself standing in a white, endless plane. "What is going-"
Suddenly, she was assaulted by an unfamiliar emotion, an emotion foreign to a Primordial like her: fear. What followed that fear was a tremendous amount of pain as unfamiliar energy began erasing her soul.
And that's when she realized... she was dying. Surprisingly, a smile bloomed on her face. "I see, now I realize what kind of person I was dealing with," she said as she comprehended Rimuru's true capabilities. "But I do not regret dying... no, the only thing I regret is not being able to serve a master like him. But maybe, just maybe, he will find me again, just as he did this time. And when the time comes, I hope I will be useful to you... Rimuru-sama." With those final words, she closed her eyes and prepared herself to embrace death.
******
<Master, are you a sadist, perhaps?>
'Of course not, Ciel, and you know that!' Rimuru retorted with a sigh.
Right now, he was back in the village, and Blanc was resting on his bed, unconscious, after her little encounter with [Imaginary Collapse]. Naturally, there was a commotion in the village when he carried a striking woman like Blanc back in his arms, but a single stern glance from him silenced everyone.
<Master, don't you think you went a little too far?>
'I know I overdid it a little, but it was necessary to earn her respect,' Rimuru explained. 'In our previous timeline, when I met the demoness trio, they were already educated by Diablo, and me being ignorant about their status as Primordials made everything work out. But this time, I had to win her loyalty on my own, and Diablo had once told me that demons value strength over everything else, so I just showed her the energy that sits at the top of this world.'
As Rimuru was talking with Ciel, Blanc suddenly shot up from the bed, her breath heavy. "What happened? I thought I died!" she muttered, trying to make sense of the situation.
"I mean, you almost did, but I pulled you out at the last minute," she immediately snapped her neck towards Rimuru as he answered her question. "Don't worry, though. I have already repaired your soul and healed your injuries as well."
"Rimuru-sama..." Blanc said as she recalled how she had asked him to use his strongest attack and what followed after. "What was that? I had never felt that kind of fear and pain before."
"Well, I just pulled you into my [Imaginary Space] and then filled that space with Nihilistic energy, which was going to destroy your soul," Rimuru explained.
"I see..." she said but then suddenly widened her eyes. "Nihilistic energy! I've heard about that... but wasn't it something that only the creator, Veldanava sama could use?"
"Yep, that's the very same Nihilistic energy we're talking about," Rimuru said with a shrug.
Blanc just stared at Rimuru for a moment before bursting out laughing. "I must say, Rimuru-sama, you really are full of surprises," she said and smiled at Rimuru. "That's why it will be my honor to serve you, my lord."
"In that case, here, take this body," Rimuru stated, conjuring a Golem crafted from Divine Steel, which Blanc immediately occupied. "Well then, I will be in your care," he added, extending his hand. "Testarossa."
As soon as Rimuru named her, Testarossa's body glowed, and she evolved from an Arch Demon to a Demon Peer, gaining an insane boost in strength and magicules.
Once her evolution was complete, she kneeled in front of Rimuru and gently took his hand in hers. "I, Primordial White, Testarossa, swear my undying loyalty to you," she pledged, and promptly, she was granted another reward.
<Creating a soul corridor with Testarossa. Success>
<<Unique Skill [Death] received.>>
<<Unique Skill [Death] has evolved into Ultimate Skill [Belial, Lord of Underworld]>>
"Well then, Testa, take some rest because tomorrow, we are heading for the Armed Nation of Dwargon."
To be continued...
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง