Story: I'm a Daemon, so what?
Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.
Chapter 103: Alternative
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- Felix -
Damrada went on to explain basically everything he knew Rudra went through. If you asked me, Damrada seemed to be Rudra's biggest fanboy, he knew a lot about the guy. Though I guess they were rather close so that was normal. Still Damrada was Rudra's greatest hype man.
He talked about Rudra inspiring the military to better itself, the politicians to work on their policies for the people, he seemed like a pretty good guy from what Damrada was telling.
I was aware that Damrada was biased as hell though, and clearly something had changed in Rudra between then and now for things to be how they are now.
Shortly after returning to learn under Veldanava, Lucia Nasca got married to Veldanava who had taken on the name Velda Nava leading to Milim's birth. She must have definitely been something to have attracted God himself.
Velda ended up losing the majority of his power to Milim leaving him at the strength level of an average Human despite retaining his status as a True Dragon. I highly doubt he wasn't a True Dragon anymore, once a True Dragon, always a True Dragon.
After that of course a neighboring Kingdom attacked Velda when he was weak due to Milim's birth, there can be no happy endings or something I guess.
I didn't know why they attacked, nor did Damrada.
Velda died, as did Lucia. At this point Dino went on a rampage and destroyed the Kingdom that caused Velda's death turning into a True Demon Lord.
I already knew a good portion of that, though I did still wonder just why Dino was so weak to my senses despite being a True Demon Lord.
Odin had previously hypothesized that he was sealing his power, and Othinus agreed. But nothing could be said for certain without me getting to analyze him deeply which likely wasn't happening.
He had an Ultimate Skill so he was still someone I had to take seriously with how bullshit some Ultimate Skills could be. Look at Odin, Lord of Cursed Knowledge, it was basically the greatest source of my rise to power.
I rolled my eyes as I felt Othinus preening within me. Despite not identifying as Odin anymore, she was still once that Skill. Now that she could actually take pride in her actions she was enjoying the emotions that came with it.
But I didn't think I was wrong to be wary of Rudra and by extension Michael. Michael had already been proven to be able to grant Ultimate level abilities with Damrada's ability, that alone was pretty extraordinary.
There was a fine line separating the true top tier fighters in this world, being able to fight at the Ultimate level was that line, and Michael, Lord of Justice could seemingly bypass that entirely.
I mean I could too with Brahma's Gifting function, but Brahma, Lord of Creation, was made through a lot of hard work on Odin's part as well as tons of data.
I suppose Michael, Lord of Justice was God's Skill for a reason. It was seriously varied, mind control, Ultimate level gifting abilities, what was next? A super overpowered barrier I couldn't get past?
"So what next?" I asked as I sat up in my seat. From this point on I didn't know nearly as much, sure I knew the general events but not much more so I was rather interested in hearing more.
"After losing Velda and his sister Rudra had fallen into a deep state of depression." Damrada said with remorse.
Damn, so the first True Hero got depression? Not that I didn't understand, no matter how spiritually strong one is, the loss of someone close to you is bound to affect you in some way.
"Though he eventually got himself together, he and the Lord of Darkness, Guy Crimson, had a meeting. Something Guy Crimson said sparked something within Emperor Rudra, and for that I will be forever grateful." Damrada stated with conviction, causing me to smile.
Despite the things Guy had done in the past, like massacring millions of people when he practically erased all life on the Ice Continent, I did think of him as a good friend to those he cared for.
I wouldn't condone what he did, but again who was I to judge him for his actions, I wasn't a very good person either, it would just be hypocritical of me to criticize him.
Not to mention that wouldn't get me anywhere except perhaps on Guy's bad side. He had to have gotten Lucifer, Lord of Pride for a damn good reason, he was prideful as hell, he wouldn't take my criticism well.
Despite my confidence in my ability I wasn't going to start a real fight between us for no real reason. Me and him weren't that close but I'd like to think there was a mutual respect between us, I didn't want to ruin that.
"That is when the rapid expansion began. We would demand that our neighbors surrender or face our wrath, most did not surrender at first." Damrada continued.
I snorted. "I can imagine how that all went."
Damrada nodded. "Indeed, it was not a peaceful process, I can fully admit that. We took over their kingdoms by force and incorporated it into the newly renamed Eastern Empire. Eventually many of the neighboring Kingdoms lost hope, some would willingly submit themselves to the Eastern Empire without even being asked, while others would give into the Empire's demands the moment the Empire declared its intent to invade." Damrada said with a sigh. "I am aware that it was incredibly tyrannical, but now life is thriving in the Eastern Empire, so I suppose it was worth it." Damrada mumbled to himself.
I wasn't in any position to judge him or his Empire's actions. I killed 30,000+ Majins that served Clayman, simply for the sin of obeying their ruler, likely under threat of death.
I'm sure many of the Majin I slaughtered for my Harvest Festival did not want to be there. But when a Demon Lord tells you to do something you do it. Even Clayman who was by far the weakest within the Council at that time had a lot of pull.
Greater Majin had EPs of 10,000 or so, normal Majin had even less and Clayman was above 300,000.
I didn't even feel guilty about it, that said more about me than anything else. I knew damn well that I wasn't a good person, I just tried my best to not be a bad person while prioritizing those I was close to.
And according to Milim Ear, Damrada genuinely believed what he had said about everything so far.
"The military was restructured and the Imperial Guardians were created to be Emperor Rudra's personal enforcers. I was placed as the Commander over all of them due to my strength as a Saint. Eventually the standards were raised and the requirement to be a Single Digit at all was Sainthood." Damrada explained.
"Hmm, so originally you were basically the only Saint in the Empire?" I asked.
Damrada shook his head. "I was not the only one, yet there were very few of them. Things are different now however."
I nodded. "Right." As far as I know, the Eastern Empire had at least 9 Saints then, not including the Emperor himself. Maybe there were even more that Damrada didn't know of as well.
Saints were not weak at all, they were stronger than the majority of the world at minimum while if they trained I wouldn't be surprised if their EP went beyond 3,000,000. Damrada's own was a bit higher than 2,000,000.
"And from what I know ranks 10 and below all have a requirement of being an Enlightened?" I asked.
Damrada nodded. "That is correct. Imperial Guardian #10 serves as a reserve of sorts for the Single Digits, they are the ones most likely to become Saints in the Emperor's eyes."
So that's 91 powerful Enlightened then, with the higher in ranking you are the more powerful you get.
Despite everything, even Enlightened could be serious threats. Glenda was only an Enlightened yet with her Unique Skill, marksmanship, and the training she got from Lalatina I feel she'd be able to take on even Clayman, and he was once an official Demon Lord, a weak one but a Demon Lord nonetheless.
Damrada sighed. "Things were going well, Emperor Rudra's empire was rapidly expanding, Velgrynd and him were happy, even after the loss Emperor Rudra went through. At this point I had begun to notice something odd, as the years went on, the Emperor seemed to be weakening, he was more… distracted."
I leaned forwards. "Continue." Any weakness on the Hero of the Beginning would be very useful. I'd trusted Damrada so far since Milim Eye hadn't picked up any dishonesty yet.
"I learned that he would have to reincarnate himself as his Spirit was weakening, it wasn't until later that I would learn why." Damrada said with sadness.
"Why did he have to reincarnate himself?" I asked.
"I will get to that shortly if you do not mind." Damrada said.
I sighed. "Sure, continue with your story then." I had all the time in the world right now, and it seemed Damrada wanted to be dramatic.
Damrada nodded. "Thank you."
"At some point Emperor Rudra and I grew even closer."
Hold on, is this going into that direction? Am I in some shoujo manga world!?
"He was my best friend." Damrada continued.
I let out a sigh of relief. I didn't want to hear about Damrada and Rudra's homosexual relationship if that was a thing.
Damrada looked at me oddly before continuing. "The Empire continued to grow and grow, soon enough there were even more Saints other than myself who served Rudra leading to the formation of the elite Single Digits. Each of them were Saints and had all swore loyalty to Emperor Rudra. It was then that Emperor Rudra bestowed upon us an Ultimate power, Alternative."
I raised a brow. So it was named Alternative? That was rather lackluster compared to what I'm used to, but I suppose it isn't an actual Ultimate Skill.
Though with all the information Damrada is giving me, I'm pretty sure he's betraying Rudra, or at least he wants to.
He's made it seem like he's super loyal to Rudra, yet here he is giving me all this information. Sure he could be giving me false information, but thanks to Milim Ear's truth detecting abilities I could tell he was not lying. So why would he betray the man he claimed to be loyal to?
"Alternative was an Ultimate power given to each and every Single Digit. Each Single Digit was bestowed with a different ability, I was given absolute mental and soul protection, while others were given things like absolute superiority over Unique Skills and Magic–"
"Excuse me?" What kind of bullshit was that? Absolute superiority over Unique Skills and Magic was bullshit! I'm sure there was a weakness, nothing was absolute in this world but it's still bullshit for a normal fighter to have that.
Damrada nodded. "Indeed, Emperor Rudra was a man of many mysteries. It wasn't until later that I would understand where our Alternatives came from."
"Michael, huh?" Damrada's Alternative came from Michael, Lord of Justice, so it was safe to assume the rest did as well. That means every Single Digit has a connection to Rudra as well.
Damrada's eyes shot open. "How do you know about that!?"
"I'm not completely clueless." I responded as if Guy hadn't told me everything I knew.
"I suppose I should have expected as much." Damrada sighed.
"Each of the Single Digits has Alternative as you call it then?"
Damrada nodded. "They do. As Saints they can handle an Ultimate power."
My lips pursed. "Hmm, I see."
If Alternative allowed each Single Digit to fight at the Ultimate level that would be rather troublesome. Saints were strong in general, though not all of them could fight at that high of a level.
Saare was a Saint yet he was still a long way from reaching that level, Hinata was also a Saint before she went to the past and she was also very far from the Ultimate level.
Among my subordinates only Arcueid, Megumin, and Lalatina could fight at that level, the rest would have a lot of trouble if they faced a Single Digit then.
Rimuru was even worse off since none of his subordinates except likely Diablo could fight at that level.
If the Eastern Empire goes on a full offensive and they strategically deploy their Single Digits things could get troublesome.
Rudra doesn't seem like an idiot, I'm sure he's already prepared for massive AoE attacks so his army doesn't get wiped out in a single attack. I'm sure he's learned from his previous experience with sending his army at Veldora. Though that expedition alone was pretty dumb.
"Do you know what the Alternative powers are?"
Damrada narrowed his eyes but nodded. "I do know some of them."
"Explain them to me." I all but demanded.
Damrada sighed. "Fine, I've already thrown my lot in with you."
I raised a brow at that statement but brushed it off. He'd probably explain that later.
"I will explain the ones I know. I only know of the ones the Single Digits below me possess, and even among them, some I do not know what their Alternatives do." Damrada began.
I nodded.
"Very well, Single Digit #009 is named Jiwu, her Alternative is known as Complete Concealment of Own Powers."
I raised a brow. That didn't sound too impressive, I was capable of such a thing, so were many of my subordinates. Haze could do something rather similar in fact.
Noticing my expression Damrada shrugged. "I didn't say they were all glamorous, but it was sufficient for Jiwu to grasp the truth of the world and fight at the Ultimate level. Not to mention the overall buff that Alternative provides."
I nodded along. "Fair enough."
"Jiwu is an otherworlder who is a very experienced combatant. She is well respected among the Single Digits for her stealth speciality. Jiwu is shrewd and level-headed, possessing the judgment and skills to maneuver around various situations and environments. She did not become a Single Digit due to luck, she positioned herself to reach that level." Damrada sounded impressed.
"She is aware of her shortcomings but does not lose sight of her strengths and plays to them well wherever she can, even covering for her allies shortcomings when warranted." He continued.
"For Single Digit #008, Marco, the Alternative he was given was merely an enhancement to his own Unique Skill enhancing its capabilities." Damrada said. "His Unique Skill is known as Adapter."
My lips twitched as I thought back to my own Intrinsic Skill: Adapter. It hadn't been used all that much since I didn't have much that needed adapting to. Only when I faced something that I seriously couldn't handle would Adapter kick in.
"Adapter allows the user to turn into anybody that they have seen and mimic their power. However, there was a limit to how much the user could mimic. If the target was significantly more powerful than the user, they could not mimic everything." Damrada continued. "With Alternative enhancing it even more of the person can be mimicked, it is a rather powerful ability. In the right hands."
My brows furrowed. "Could it mimic the Alternatives of other people?" I doubted it since that would be absurd for a Unique Skill, but it was worth confirming.
Damrada shook his head. "It cannot, however Marco is loyal to Kondou, and so Kondou is his primary mimic, once Marco is mimicking Kondou his fighting abilities are enhanced dramatically as Marco picks up Kondou's divine swordsmanship and divine marksmanship making him a significant threat capable of scaling up to defeat higher ranking Single Digits."
I raised a brow. That could be troublesome, if he mimicked me would he gain all of my Sword Arts and other Arts?
I may not focus on swordsmanship since I didn't have many serious fights, but I was still damn good at it.
For me swordsmanship was reserved for fights that I had to take seriously like some chuuni anime character. All I needed was an eyepatch and some cringe quote like beneath my eye lays dormant the gates to hell! Or something like that.
I can workshop it.
Still, my Sword Arts were capable of causing mass amounts of destruction in the wrong hands.
Though upon thinking on it further that wasn't possible. The only way this Marco could mimic someone's fighting style is likely due to his Skill having some sort of analysis function that dives deep into the subconscious to replicate the combat style of whoever he mimics.
I would sense something like that and can just brush it off so I don't need to worry about that.
"Though Marco has failed to mimic Emperor Rudra and even the Marshall, meaning there is some kind of cap on it. I suspect he only managed to mimic Kondou because Kondou allowed him to." Damrada added.
I nodded. That only confirmed my thoughts.
Damrada went on to describe the general character traits of Marco, those being that he was level headed and serious, but put on a front of a humble and shy man.
Apparently Damrada was the one who recruited Marco into the Imperial Guardians some 800 years ago.
After some centuries he became a Saint and joined the Single Digits. He was eventually challenged by Tatsuya Kondou to a ranking duel and instantly became enamored with his strength, becoming his loyal follower and even joining the Imperial Intelligence Bureau so he could be of use to him.
Basically he was a simp, but I could respect it.
"Moving on to Single Digit #007, Bernie. He is also an otherworlder, one whose talent only shows up once a generation. At merely 45 years of age he is a Saint whose strength cannot be underestimated. Bernie's Alternative possesses the aspect of Absolute Superiority over Magic and Unique Skills." Damrada explained.
From the analysis Othinus got, I understood that Alternative in general at its base provided an overall buff to the user's abilities. Magic, Battlewill, it was all given a general buff, but Bernie's went beyond the basic buff and enhanced his abilities further.
Damrada explained that Bernie was a rather humble man focused on his missions. He was confident in his abilities but it didn't cross over into the realm of unfounded arrogance. Damrada was also one of Bernie's mentors.
Single Digit #006 was named Minaza and was one of the so-called Four Horsemen, the Four Horsemen were the personal guards of Rudra and were among the strongest in the Eastern Empire. Minaza actually isn't Human, she's a Majin that Rudra found somehow.
Damrada was unaware of Minaza's origins, but she was definitely in the Awakened class according to Damrada.
Unfortunately due to the distance between Damrada and Minaza he didn't know what her Alternative was capable of.
Even her general combat capabilities were mostly a mystery to him since he hadn't interacted with her much. But I think it's safe to say that she is probably stronger than the other Single Digits below her or I imagine Rudra wouldn't have placed her at that spot.
Then came Single Digit #005, Garcia. In Damrada's own words Garcia was a cocky little shit who didn't know the vastness of heaven and earth.
For a moment I thought Damrada was an ancient cultivator who taught his juniors lessons. Damrada knew of Garcia's Alternative since Garcia had once challenged Damrada for his spot before getting fodderized.
Garcia was also one of the Four Horsemen.
Garcia's Alternative was a rather interesting one, it was called Subjugation Conquest.
It transforms Garcia's intent to defeat his enemy into a strong Fighting Spirit carrying the holy alignment.
In practice, this purifies all kinds of Majin born from magicules as well as Daemons.
Garcia also experiences a boost in strength the more he provokes their opponent. A Skill that makes you stronger the more shit you talk sounds fun.
After Garcia is Single Digit #004, Gardner who was also one of the Four Horsemen. Damrada didn't know much about Gardner since he hadn't personally mentored or recruited him.
From what Damrada had observed Gardner's Alternative allowed him to make clones of himself that retained all of his abilities, though he had to split off a portion of his own energy to give to the clone.
It sounded somewhat similar to Split Body.
"Finally there is Single Digit #003, Granit. He is also the leader of the Four Horsemen and a man even I cannot see through." Damrada said.
My brows shot up. "He's stronger than you?"
Damrada nodded. "I believe he is, however he never cared to challenge me for my spot, and so he remained below me in the rankings." Damrada explained.
"If you've never fought, why do you think he's stronger?" I asked. I'm sure Damrada had a reason, when you get to our level your instincts alone were supernatural and could be considered to give you precognition. Your instincts could warn you of incoming attacks, someone's general threat level, etc.
"For one, it's his total energy. He had multiple times my own reserves."
My lips twitched. That was a whole lot of energy, above 10,000,000 EP most likely. As a Saint that was honestly absurd.
Perhaps Granit already is a Divine Human and Damrada just doesn't know. Becoming a Divine Human isn't about total strength even if that does play a part, it's about understanding and seeing the world in a different way.
It's why Hinata evolved into a Divine Human only after being stimulated and reaching an enlightenment of sorts.
"I do not know which Alternative he was given unfortunately, though perhaps I could challenge him as I am now. My clash with you, Lord Felix allowed me to grow more than I had in centuries." Damrada said with a smile.
I shrugged. "What can I say? I guess I'm just a good teacher."
Damrada nodded. "Perhaps."
"Give me a list of other members of the Imperial Guardians worth noting later."
Damrada nodded. "Very well." He said with a sigh. I have a feeling he didn't like selling his comrades out, but he seemed to genuinely believe it was for the best.
"Continuing on, Rudra and I had grown close enough that I learned more about Emperor Rudra's abilities. Michael was a rather wondrous power, its absolute defense made Rudra unbeatable." Damrada continued.
My lips twitched. Did I jinx it? An absolute defense? I mean Rimuru used to call Uriel's layered barriers an absolute defense when they most definitely weren't. Maybe this was a similar situation?
"What absolute defense?" I still asked. I only knew of the control aspect of Michael, not much else.
Damrada shrugged. "I am not aware of the exact details of how the ability works, but I have seen it in action myself, no ability can touch Emperor Rudra. Fighting Spirit, magicules, Arts, Magic, nothing can touch him, it's almost as if any attack used against him is simply negated, as if they were never used in the first place. He called it Castle Guard." Damrada looked up to the ceiling. "It was a truly wondrous ability, I'd heard even the Scorch Dragon was helpless against it when the Emperor used it."
My lips twitched. "...I see."
Even Velgrynd couldn't get past it? Well the rumors Damrada heard could also be wrong but that does paint a rather troublesome picture.
Guy did say Michael was originally God's Skill, but I'm still surprised by how overpowered that sounds. Something that just negates Skills, Arts, Battlewill, and power in its entirety just sounded too unfair. It was like Anti-Skill on steroids.
Though perhaps it has some weakness, I doubt Damrada knows everything about Michael, in fact he probably didn't even know a fraction of what it could do. Still that's important information, at least sparing Damrada is paying off.
"I had hoped that Yuuki's unique ability would have been capable of dealing with the Emperor's defense, seeing how it could also do something similar, but it seems that plan was destined to fail." Damrada said.
"You talking about Anti-Skill?" I asked. That would make some sense if one was uneducated about Anti-Skills weakness to something more complex.
I highly doubt Anti-Skill would work on a defense of the caliber that Damrada described. Perhaps he thought that Anti-Skill would just be able to no sell whatever unstoppable defense Rudra has.
For something to be able to negate Skills, Arts, and magicules in general it would have to be obscenely complex. So something that Anti-Skill would fail against. It seems Damrada was shit out of luck for betting on Yuuki.
"Indeed it would." Othinus chimed in.
Damrada nodded. "I am."
I pursed my lips. "Well you may still have that on the table, but the thing is, why would you want to come up with a counter to your Emperor's defense?"
Damrada looked at me in confusion. "Still have that on the table? Do you know someone with Anti-Skill? I believed that Yuuki was the only individual with it, believe me, I have looked." Damrada's eyes lit up with a meager amount of hope. "Or have you perhaps kept Yuuki alive?"
Yikes, he really was desperate huh?
I shrugged. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'm not going to spill everything when I still don't know what goal you're playing at."
Damrada nodded. "That is fair. Very well, I will continue then. I had continued to serve Rudra diligently for a very long time, things changed as they always do, Tatsuya Kondou showed up and took my place as Single Digit 001."
My eyes narrowed. "Tatsuya Kondou? That name doesn't sound familiar. You mentioned him earlier so I was waiting for you to bring him up."
That was definitely a Japanese name, so probably an otherworlder.
And for someone to have taken Damrada's place they'd have to be pretty damn strong.
Damrada smirked. "Kondou did always pride himself on his ability to stay hidden. He is known as the Darkness of the Empire, not many know of his existence let alone his name and position within the Empire. It is said that he knows everything within the Empire, he is the Emperor's eyes and ears when it comes to the happenings within the Empire."
I tapped my finger on the table. "Kondou huh? He beat you for your spot then?"
Damrada nodded. "Even I can admit that Lieutenant Kondou is an extraordinary man."
I raised a brow. "Lieutenant? Isn't he the head of the Imperial Guardians? Shouldn't he be higher up on the totem pole than a mere Lieutenant?"
There were tons of ranks above that of Lieutenant when it came to the military like Captain, Major Colonel, then of course the General ranks. Compared to those Lieutenants were more low ranking even though Lieutenants also served as important stations within the military.
Damrada shrugged. "That's what one would think, but that is one thing that Kondou was adamant about. He wishes to stay a mere Lieutenant."
I nodded. "I see, mind explaining more about Kondou then?" I said in a tone that brokered no disagreement.
I liked Damrada, I really did but I didn't know about this Kondou guy until this moment. And he was very important within the Eastern Empire if he leads the Single Digits. If I didn't know about Kondou what else could I be missing? There was war on the horizon and I'd do my damndest to make sure our side had the highest chance of victory possible. That meant the information Damrada had could be priceless.
Damrada sighed. "I suppose I must."
I leaned back in my chair as I waited for Damrada to continue.
"I do not know everything but my position in the Empire as well as my friendship with Emperor Rudra afforded me quite a bit of trust." Damrada began.
I hummed in agreement. "I can imagine, he even told you about his Ultimate Skill."
The only people that really knew any details about my Skills were the subordinates I trusted and cared for, and friends and partners like Rimuru and Luminous. Hinata too but I wasn't quite sure what category she would fall under, friend? Student?
Meh no need to label it, it can be a combination of labels.
"From what I know, Kondou is an otherworlder, one that appeared in front of Emperor Rudra when on the verge of death. Kondou seemed to be from the military from his former world and valued loyalty above all else. Emperor Rudra took care of him personally which won Kondou's loyalty. The Emperor offered a high ranking position to Kondou almost right away due to seeing the potential in him, yet Kondou rejected, stating that he wished to work his way up the ranks himself." Damrada said. "Kondou's devotion may as well be considered fanatical towards Emperor Rudra. He is one of the single greatest threats in the Empire, surpassed by only the Emperor himself and the Marshall."
"So Rudra and Velgrynd are the only ones superior to him, huh?"
Damrada raised a brow. "I suppose I should not be surprised about your awareness of the Scorch Dragon's position within the Empire."
"Fanatically devoted, huh?" I muttered, mulling over this new piece of information. If Damrada rated Kondou so highly he was someone worth thinking about. I'm not sure if Guy knew about him either, he didn't mention Kondou at the very least though he could have just opted to not tell me for whatever reason.
Still, that level of loyalty was usually useful, not for me, but for Rudra. It would be annoying to have to consider Kondou's place in everything that's going on now. It could be dangerous if left unchecked.
"But why stay a Lieutenant if he's so powerful? What's in it for him?" I asked with curiosity. Damrada said he really didn't know but perhaps he had at least something. Anything about this Kondou guy's personality could be useful at this point. Man, I hate being uninformed.
Damrada shrugged. "I cannot give the exact reasoning because I do not know. But I believe it is in relation to his previous life in his other world."
I hummed. "I see. Continue."
Damrada nodded. "As I mentioned earlier, his role in the Empire is to serve as its shadows. To catch any betrayal in the makings, to make sure everybody is doing what they should be while also maintaining his information network beyond the bound of the Eastern Empire."
"So he has an information network in the West?"
Damrada nodded. "He does. He likely already knows about what had just occurred with Granbell's attack on Ruberious. I would not be surprised if he has people in Azeroth as well."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure he's tried but I trust Arcueid to deal with all that."
The amount of spies she has routed out are absurd. Gotta love that girl, she makes life so much more simple. I would feel bad for making her do so much if she herself didn't ask for the workload she has. She's one of the odd people who enjoy working.
Damrada tilted his head. "Arcueid?"
I nodded. "She's one of my strongest allies and is someone I trust a lot. You'll meet her later. Probably."
Damrada nodded.
"He has an Alternative of his own then?"
Damrada nodded. "I know for a fact he does, though I do not know what it does specifically."
"I see." I hummed.
"However, something even more important than that is the fact that Kondou has a genuine Ultimate Skill."
My eyes widened. "For real!?"
Damrada nodded. "For real."
I clicked my tongue. "Troublesome."
Ultimate Skills could do anything, for all I know it's something focused on Elemental Manipulation like Elmesia's which is easier to handle despite the potential the elements have. I mean Elmesia managed to turn Wind Manipulation into something Whitebeard would be proud of with his Quake and Shockwave Manipulation.
"Do you have any idea what Kondou's Ultimate Skill can do? Its nature?"
Damrada shook his head. "I unfortunately do not know much. The times when I have seen Kondou make use of his Ultimate Skill was only once, and Kondou was not willing to share the details of his Ultimate Skill when I asked."
I sighed. "Then what about the one time you did see him use it?"
Damrada's lips twitched. "That was when he challenged me for my position in the Single Digits. Kondou has a rather unique style of fighting, sword in one hand, gun in the other."
I already knew that the Eastern Empire was rather advanced technologically, according to Chloe they had magic guns, magic swords that could basically use specific magic attacks once some energy was used, they had magi-tanks, magi-airships, and some other interesting stuff. They've really been abusing the knowledge they get from otherworlds.
"Back then he merely looked at me with disinterest, we fought and I lost. What ended it all was a single bullet that he fired at me, it was able to bypass all of my defenses, by the time I realized it's threat level it was already far too late, I had already lost."
That means he can imbue the effects of his Ultimate Skill into his weapon which isn't unheard of, I can do it, Luminous can do it, plenty of others can also do it. That doesn't mean it doesn't require mastery over your Ultimate Skill, so on top of everything else this Tatsuya Kondou knew how to use his Ultimate Skill properly instead of just relying on it like a crutch.
At least that gives me a hint on Kondou's abilities, some sort of barrier piercing ability. Perhaps something like Megumin's?
That made three Ultimate Skill users in the Empire, Rudra, Velgrynd, and Kondou. While I had four directly on my side, myself, Arcueid, Megumin, and Lalatina. Rimuru had himself, Veldora, and Chloe, while Luminous had herself and Hinata.
Looking at it from that point of view we outnumbered their heavy hitters, but fighting on the Ultimate level was possible even without an Ultimate Skills, I'm sure each of the Single Digits will be at that level. In the end quality always trumps quantity in this world.
"In the end I see Kondou as a man who values discipline above all else. Perhaps he found strength in humility, or maybe it's his way of keeping a low profile. Either way, Kondou was absolutely unshakeable, and in many ways, he was Rudra's shadow, a figure who could act on behalf of the Emperor when needed without revealing his true hand." Damrada continued. "It was no surprise that he attained the legendary feat of obtaining an Ultimate Skill."
"Is there anyone else in the Empire like him?" I asked. "People who might not be on record but would make a difference in a fight?"
Damrada shook his head. "The Eastern Empire has its experiments, and perhaps some of them are successful enough to cause damage to a normal mortal army, but as far as I know, nothing has been created that can fight at even the Awakened level, let alone higher than that. If there is anyone like Kondou, they haven't surfaced."
"I see."
"If that is all your inquiries about Kondou, I will continue with my story." Damrada said.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. I'd rather just pluck all the information from his mind but I could tell Damrada wanted to do this, maybe to comfort himself, maybe to reaffirm his resolve. Who could tell?
"At some point Rudra requested to meet me in private." Damrada began. "I can remember that meeting as if it were just yesterday. Rudra and I made small talk and caught up before he got serious. He asked me if I was willing to kill him. I firmly denied which Rudra expected. That's when he opened up about his issue."
I sighed in relief. We were finally getting into the good stuff.
"His Ultimate Skill: Michael, Lord of Justice, was killing him." Damrada said with sadness. "Michael was too powerful, somehow, someway it was able to fight back against Emperor Rudra's will resulting in a fight within the Emperor's soul. An eternal fight within himself. Due to this he would have to reincarnate every century or so to strengthen his soul. This went on for sometime." Damrada explained.
Michael fighting back against Rudra huh? Well all Virtue Series Skills have a latent ego within them. Greed swapped over to Yuuki from Mariabell because its ego wanted to, but I would have thought the ego of a Virtue Series Skill, one of the Arch Angels would have a good alignment.
Though I suppose because it had a good alignment it was fighting back against Rudra. Rudra was conquering surrounding countries tyrannically, one didn't have to be a force of absolute goodness to become a True Hero. So perhaps Michael didn't like Rudra's ways.
It was still pretty off putting to know that a Skill, one's own power could do that to someone.
"Don't worry Master! You will not have that issue!"
'I wasn't talking about you. You know full well that you have my full trust.'
It would be pretty bad of me to still doubt Othinus at this point.
I felt an influx of positive emotions from Othinus. I still needed to get used to the connection between us, her soul was literally housed in mine. It doesn't get much closer than that.
"He said that his mind wears out each and every time he reincarnates, however he hypothesized that it was his soul that wears out. Despite the reincarnation he is losing more than he is gaining with each reincarnation, but he cannot stop." Damrada explained.
I pursed my lips. "How does he reincarnate?" I asked first.
Damrada raised an eyebrow at me, looking mildly amused. "Well, the first step is pretty straightforward." He said with a smirk. "He and his chosen Queen at the time have sex. That's where it all starts."
I snorted. "Wasn't he with Velgrynd? I'm pretty sure having a spawn is forbidden for True Dragons."
Damrada nodded. "It is, he received permission from Velgrynd to procreate with his Queen to create a spawn to reincarnate into."
Ignoring the fact that Rudra reincarnates into his own child I chuckle. "Heh, cuck."
Damrada raised a brow. "She would likely attempt to incinerate you instantly if she heard you say that."
I shrugged. "I'm just calling it as I see it."
"Moving on, Emperor Rudra's reincarnation ritual was not the standard, it was specially designed for him so his overpowering power was inherited by his reincarnation. There was a price for a mortal to gain power that surpassed even that of the True Dragons, the Ultimate Spiritual Lifeforms." Damrada said mournfully.
"He passed on his power to his reincarnations?" I asked for confirmation.
Damrada nodded. "He does."
"How does he not you know… go poof. That much power in a brand new vessel would overpower the vessel." I asked with curiosity.
There was a reason vessels were important, if you didn't have a strong enough vessel your vessel would just collapse.
Damrada nodded. "You are correct, which is why until he reaches adulthood he trains his body to be capable of handling his power. Until then it remains sealed."
My lips twitched hearing that. Adulthood in this world is 15 years old. I doubt he was training from birth since he would be a baby, so in under 15 years he trains a normal weak body up to True Dragon levels?
That's just absurd. Even after my Harvest Festival my Deathman body wasn't that good. It was only after getting the Star King Factor, Storm Factor, and Frost Factor did my physique make its way into True Dragon territory.
I suppose Rudra was just built different.
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Author's Note:
Hey everyone, back with another chapter of Daemon. We get some more background knowledge on Damrada and everything that's been going on in the Eastern Empire. Learn a bit about the Single Digits as well as some more stuff. I hoped to go over a bit more but it is what it is. The chapter practically wrote itself with how it was rolling.
Lots of more important information is going to come up that will probably change some of Felix's plans so look forward to that.
Anyways, thanks for reading, peace.
Thanks to @Salante and @Flowerman for beta'ing this chapter.
Also, you guys should check out @BonVoyage Tensura fic, it's pretty damn good.