Aghanim's Rubick Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

There was a lot to do once we had returned, integrating the Orcs and making sure that no one was adversely affected from the Harvest Festival. Apparently, my becoming a Demon Lord was a Big Deal, with the people who were aware of the change becoming even more reverential of me.

Much to my annoyance.

Thankfully, it had been contained to only those who were present at the meeting with Treyni. I had forbidden them from sharing the news with anyone, besides reassuring everyone that the sleep was a one time issue and will not be occurring again. As for the other Demon Lords, I had no idea how they would react to my ascension, but I was focusing heavily on learning and testing my new abilities to be ready for anything they decided to do.

There remained a few loose ends however, things that occurred in and around the battle that needed to be addressed. Which is why I had one particular advisor of mine in my office currently, for a semi-private meeting.

“A question does come to mind…” I began, steepling my fingers and staring at the nervously drinking slime, “About how one, even if they possessed the knowledge, came up with the idea of summoning a Demon to guard them as they were about to pass out.”

“Ahahaha.” He chuckled nervously, staring at said demon who hadn’t moved from my side for what felt like days, “Well, that’s difficult to speak about when she’s right there.”

“I am my Lord’s shadow.” Lucifer smiled in response, “If you have any objections to my presence, please imagine that I am not here.”

“Right…” Susuru’s voice trailed off, “How long has she been doing this?”

I sighed at the question. Lucifer had started to follow me around, watching me like a hawk without any pauses or breaks ever since I had discovered what had happened to Veldora in the Void. I had spent some time examining the magical fusion reactor, making sure that I understood what was happening and how the process worked, but I had thought that I would have returned before anyone missed me.

I had thought wrong.

If I didn’t know any better, I would say she has separation issues.

“You get used to it.” My voice was dry, “Stop changing the subject. I know you have an analytical skill, did it calculate that summoning Lucifer was the correct path of action?”

He looked shocked at my blatant calling out of his skill’s function, becoming defensive, “What is the problem? Why are you so concerned over this? Are you unhappy that Lucifer was summoned?”

“Of course not.” I shut down his deflection, “It worked out very well for me. This time. What of the next? Or the one after that? I know your personality, Susuru, you wouldn’t do something that reckless out of nowhere. It’s very out of character for you, so please help me understand what happened.”

He shifted, clasping his cup before he sagged into his seat, “How do you feel like my old CEO? You even have the expectant stare down… fine. Here’s what happened…”

He then proceeded to explain to my ever growing astonishment exactly how this ‘Great Sage’ skill of his functioned, as well as how much it helped him get his feet underneath himself in this new world. Oh, I wasn’t jealous, far from it. The reason for my surprise was much more simple.

“You are the luckiest idiot alive, you know that?” Those were my first words after his tale.

He blinked, “Excuse me?”

“You arrive in a foreign world, in an unfamiliar body, in a strange magical place. You then hear a voice in your head, one that you have never heard before and started to give you instructions.” I laid it out for him, “And you decided to listen to it?!”

He opened his mouth at that, momentarily lost for words, before looking down and responding sheepishly, “She’s only given advice so far. It’s worked out well…”

“That’s why I called you lucky.” I sighed, “Being so blindly trusting of weird voices in a world where magic exists can backfire massively.”

“I get it.” He grumbled.

“Good.” I nodded sternly, “As for the one you currently have piggybacking in your brain… She did good. I don’t know what would have happened if only the Dryads were there to protect us, Lucifer made it certain that we would not be taken advantage of.”

“Thank you for your kind words, My Lord.” Lucifer spoke demurely from behind me.

“You’re welcome.” I responded, before turning back to the slime, “In light of her actions, please tell Great Sage that I am grateful for her help. Let me know if you are going to be summoning anything else though, OK?”

Susuru blushed as he kept his eyes locked to the floor, “Will do, Ra- Great Sage said that she is happy to be of service.”

“My lord. Far be it from me to question you, but…” Lucifer seemed to struggle for words, “You are aware that this is a Skill we are talking about, not a separate entity?”

Susuru started to frown at her words, giving credence to my own, “Susuru views her as a friend. Susuru’s friends are my friends, no matter what they are.”

He beamed at me as I said that, causing Lucifer to chuckle, “Very well, I apologize for my question.”

---RRR---

It appeared that the change that occurred to Veldora’s magic when I lost Devour also severed my connection to him. Therefore, all the magic that the fusion was producing was unusable by me, at least not without first jumping through some hoops. Currently, I am resorting to opening a small portal into the Void and sucking in the Magic from the atmosphere to use as my own, without even touching my own reserves which had grown massively.

Interestingly enough, the Magic I pulled from the Void seemed to be more ‘pure’ for lack of a better word than the magic that naturally occurred in this world. It was almost as if the Void was actually completely empty, with nothing at all to influence and flavour the magic.

I was unsure how that was possible though, as I could see and move through it just fine, as well as sense my way back to my anchors with no issues. My current working theory was that the Void was a plane that was impossible to comprehend, and my own experiences with it were merely my mind attempting to put it in a configuration I could understand. It reminded me a bit of the Warp from 40k, except less full of murder-rape demons.

So far.

Hopefully.

Still, I was taking advantage of Lucifer’s insistence of staying by my side, asking her to assist in using the Magic from the Void more quickly. I could cast just fine using it, but I could feel the slight hesitation of the Magic gathering process, the small delay making my practiced spells feel sluggish and unresponsive. I doubted that the difference would be obvious to anyone else, but I was intimately familiar with the feel of my Magic and the imperfection irked me.

Lucifer sent a blast of her white coloured Magic towards me, the beam being dispersed by a flash of lightning.

“You have already grown more comfortable in reacting, My Lord.” The Demon spoke, her red eyes sparkling with interest as she took in my form and my spells.

“Still not where I was previously. The spells are certainly stronger and more solid, but the speed is still lagging behind.” I sighed.

“Perfection, once achieved, has an irresistible allure.” She nodded, “I have felt much the same after not practising a skill for some time.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow in interest, wanting to get to know her better, “Such as?”

“There was an instrument I was rather fond of in the Empire, I believe it was called a Piano? I decided to master it a while back on a whim.” She remarked, causing me to nod in understanding.

Of course, with people being brought here from our old world, technology would have some bleed over, especially that which was simple in concept if difficult in execution, “If that is the case, I might have to fashion one to hea-”

I stopped, turning towards the South-East and the immense Magical signature I could feel coming from that direction, “Musashi, get everyone off the training grounds and to the bunkers, now. Sound the evacuation.”

To his credit, he didn’t question why I would order such a thing despite obviously not sensing what I was, quickly ushering the other Oni and the Goblins off the grounds, evacuating the area quickly. Soon a bell started to ring in a specific pattern, one devised by Susuru and I based on morse code from our old world, short, long, short.

The signal brought the town into motion, clearing the streets and evacuating the civilians admirably.

“Do you wish for me to fight at your side, Lord Rubick?” Lucifer asked, eyes also locked onto where the mass of Magic was barrelling straight towards me.

“I’m sorry Lucifer, but I wouldn’t want to risk you on this. If it appears that I will not be able to defeat this foe, I will just teleport them away through the Void. Please go protect the Civilians, I know I can trust you to keep them safe.” I responded, preparing a shield battery to protect Claszureme in case I was not the target of this being.

“I will not fail you, Lord Rubick.” The Demon bowed, before disappearing in a burst of speed.

The mass of Magic abruptly changed direction, barrelling down in a straight line straight towards me. Amping up my perception, I did not move as a meteor slammed into the training ground in front of me. The shock-wave of the impact threw up dust and debris into clouds around the new crater in the field, the wave ruffling my robes as I merely observed the entity.

I had the same amount of magic as it. At least, that’s what it looked like at first. In actuality, there was an unnatural stillness to the Magic, its levels and disposition not moving as its owner did, pointing towards the fact that this level of Magic was being controlled, presented, as a smokescreen to hide the actual power level of the being.

Was it stronger, or weaker? Actually, that question should be: Was she stronger or weaker?

As the cloud of dust dissipated, the figure of the being was revealed to be that of a short, petite girl. She had a top and shorts combo that proudly showed off her midriff and long pink twin tails that trailed off to her waist.

Her bright blue eyes lit up as she grinned at me. The sight should have been cute, but I was struck with the feeling of a predator baring its fangs instead.

“Aha! You! You’re strong! Fight me!” She pointed a finger at me, cocking her hip as she placed her other hand on top of it.

“May I ask why you want to fight?” I asked, before pumping my body full of magic to act fast enough to dodge my head out of the way of the fist that was about to go through it.

“Why not?” She laughed, before cocking her head to the side in interest, “Why did you dodge?”

The shock that her punch caused rippled out from the training field, slamming into the shield that I conjured to protect the nearest houses of the city. I pondered her question, half paying attention to the conversation as I was figuring out a way to take her down.

“Most people don’t like to get hit by punches like that.” I replied dryly, only to receive a confused look in response.

“You’d be completely fine though?” She questioned, her eyes flicking to my stomach, locking clearly onto a specific spot.

She was staring directly at my Core.

I acted, pumping more and more magic into my body to increase my speed as I grabbed her head, the sudden speed seeming to catch her off guard. Gently pushing her backwards, she reflexively pushed against the unexpected force, allowing me to step backwards into the void, pulling her through with me aided by her own momentum and energy.

While I did so, I dropped a piece of myself, leaving it behind as I back pedalled. Using that as an anchor, I measured the distance as my steps echoed out in the nothingness of the Void. One… two… three…

Judging myself far enough that Claszureme would not be caught up in the fight, I transitioned us back out of the Void, throwing my opponent to the floor as I did. Thanks to how much Magic I was pumping into my body, this all took place in the space of a few microseconds, almost being one singular movement. The girl rolled from the throw, before jumping to her feet, turning to look at me with a disturbed look.

“That was so creepy.” Her grin grew back, although slightly subdued, “You are so fast though! This will be fun!”

Her power exploded, quickly dwarfing mine as she swiped at me, almost blazingly fast. I poured more magic, running close to my limit to dodge, before quickly starting to pull even more from the Void as she got even faster. Who the fuck was this chick? I found myself considering that as I barely dodged a spinning kick from her, the fight accelerating and accelerating seemingly without end.

The sparse bit of forest on the borders of Jura we found ourselves in was swiftly decimated, the force carried by our attacks ripping up chunks of earth and reducing trees to sawdust. Her power was overwhelming, swiftly climbing to multiple times my own. However, it was wild, inefficient. The best way I could describe it was that for every point of magic, I gained four or five times the effect than her. Something I was thankful for as she seemed to cap out, our movements being almost faster than thought as we wailed on each other, blocking and countering multiple times per instant.

I quickly noticed that she was only fighting for fun, not to win. She was consciously avoiding aiming at my core, instead of going for the kill. How she even had time to pick her targets like that, I had no idea, seeing as I was almost at my limit of perception just attempting to keep up. It was clear that she was vastly more skilled than me in close combat, but that was fine. With this insane amount of magic overflowing from her, It was almost simple for me to start to leech her knowledge like a sponge.

In between punches, I grew sharper, more refined, more accurate. Her grin widened at this, almost splitting her face as I started to match her blow for blow within a few seconds, my knowledge effortlessly incorporating itself with the style I what just received from her, allowing me to start weaving in novel attacks and strikes to take advantage of the openings her style had, the precious little there were.

Still, it was enough.

She laughed, a sound of pure, manic joy, “Great! Great! This is even better than fighting Guy, this is the best!”

Just before I started to truly turn the momentum around, she committed herself into a strike with an open palm, eating the hits that her complete dropping of defence invited with a smile, despite the shock waves each one blew out from behind her.

Deciding to eat some damage of my own, I stepped into her strike, allowing the devastating blow to smash apart my upper torso, but allowing me to deliver a punishing kick straight to her chest.

“That’s not fair!” She called out, her happy expression at odds with her words, “When you copy things, you are supposed to be worse at them!”

“I’m built different.” I quipped, watching warily as she gathered her Magic around her.

“Hah! ‘Built different!’ I like that, I’ll use it from now on!” She giggled, before opening her mouth and gathering more Magic than I had ever seen in one place before aside from Veldora.

“Drago Nova!” She shouted out, a blast of incredibly destructive magic blasting out of her mouth like the breath attack of a dragon, destroying the very ground in its path as it barrelled towards me.

I frowned. I have no idea what was behind me, but they didn’t deserve being wiped out as this thing blew through what felt like could be the entire forest. Therefore, I would have to block it.

Her eyes widened in fright as I didn’t dodge, before she recoiled as a twisting portal rent space in half, the beam of devastation disappearing in a rather anticlimactic fashion into the Void. The only trace it ever existed was the deep furrow in the ground it had torn out before I got rid of it.

“No fair.” She pouted, “That weird screaming thing you use is completely unfair.”

“I don’t play fair.” I spoke, my attention focused on something I had never attempted before, attempting to usurp Magic once it had entered the Void.

Funnily enough, it was actually easier to do that in the Real World. The pure nature of the atmosphere of the Void meant that the Caster’s will no longer held dominion over the spell, allowing its Magic to more easily be subverted. The part where it was harder, was controlling that much energy in a place I couldn’t see it. Still, I managed it with at least three quarters of the Magic still powering the spell.

“Thank you for the gift.” I told her, causing her to tilt her head in confusion before flinching as I opened another portal right above her. 

The remains of her Drago Nova, condensed by my own will and travelling much faster than it was before, flew straight downwards and directly impacted her.

“Drago Spear.” I called out my own attack name, smiling as her eyes widened and an absolutely phenomenal barrier shimmered to life to protect her from her own spell.

Drinking in the amazing piece of spell work before the explosion cut me off from sight, I was surprised when she flew straight at me from the smoke, hand outstretched to grab my Core from my body. Not having the time to dodge or slap her hand away, I took advantage of her apparently being unable to look into the Void like I could, opening a portal directly at my Anchor next to the Reactor.

The intense blast of Magical radiation and whatever was her problem with the Void itself caused her to shriek and recoil briefly, arms flying up to cover her eyes. Grabbing her as she passed by me, I slammed her into the ground below me and stomped my foot directly on her solar plexus.

Rather than depress her diaphragm completely, all it got out of her was a soft ‘whump’, despite me putting all my strength into the blow.

What is this chick made of?

Rather than be put out or in pain, when she lowered her arms her smile was as wide as ever, “Umu! I’ve decided!”

My foot still in its place on her chest, I peered down at her, “Do tell.”

“I like you Rubick! I accept you as Demon Lord!” I barely had time to react to that before she introduced herself, “It's really nice to meet you! My name is Milim! Milim Nava! But you can just call me Milim.”

“Thank… You?” My question tone got a furrowed brow from the girl so I decided to just roll with it, “Thank you Milim.”

Her grin returned at that, before it disappeared as she sighed, “Man, Now I’m going to have to fly all the way back. I’m probably going to miss Dinner too. Why can’t everything be as fun as fighting?”

Well, from her absurd strength and what she had said to me, I deduced that she was one of the other Demon Lords that I had heard so much about. Deciding that I should network with my peers when given the chance, I stepped off of her and offered her my hand, as well as an invitation.

“If you want, You could have dinner with us at Claszureme?” Her blue eyes widened with child-like wonder at that and I already knew her answer before she even gave it.

Looking down at the dirty, scruffy, but completely uninjured Demon Lord, I wondered whether the rest of them were this…

Quirky.