After a rather unique Walpurgis, the Queen of Nightmares Luminous Valentine gets back to the city of Ruberios. She thinks carefully about her next move. She knows what will happen if she angers them and the last thing she wants is another lizard attack situation. Her mind wanders from her serious thoughts for a few seconds as she mumbles, "Hrrrm, this is irritating. Was that really him? He definitely looked, sounded and acted just like him. Is he...he has to be. My..."
Before she can finish her sentence someone walks in. The captain of the imperial guard Hinata Sakaguchi is escorted in by Roy and Louis Valentin. The vampires serving underneath Luminous as the Pope and Demon Lord in her scheme to help her Vampire people live good lives walk in.
Hinata looks at Luminous with a strange look. Luminous, for the first time since they've met, has shown some concern on her face in front of her. She knows this can't be for a small reason. She has to prepare for the worst. She asks, "Lady Luminous, is something wrong?"
She turns to her with a serious expression. "No." She continues, explaining the events of the Walpurgis in detail. With a dead serious and calm demeanor she goes over the events, occasionally asking Roy about his own perspective. As she finishes she says, "Those slimes could pose a serious threat to us if we are to anger them. Before anything we must discuss how we are to deal with them." As she says this she thinks, I can't let my personal thoughts cloud my judgement. For now I will treat him like any other.
As she thinks this Hinata watches as Roy and Louis agree with her decision. Roy proclaims, "I agree. With what the slime has shown, he poses an existential threat to the church. However, with where the church stands now we aren't in the best situation. The Holy Church teaches that all monsters are evil. If they are to do anything to antagonize them then we may incur the wrath of two Demon Lords. We need to somehow declare that we aren't a threat but that could also lead to further problems."
Luminous looks at Roy, "It's true that it'll be very annoying to deal with suddenly changing a core belief in Ruminism but that may be our only option. It shouldn't be that hard for you two to handle. If we must then we will change them."
Hinata looks around at the serious atmosphere, "Are they really that much of a threat?" Luminous looks at her. Her cold reassuring gaze could write novels. Hinata looks down, "Then I may have made this more difficult. I apologize but I attacked them before to help slow down the Tenma War and take vengeance on my teacher but it seems I failed."
Louis asks, "Did you fail because you became considerate of your fellow countryman?"
"No, for starters one of them is probably from a different country but putting that aside I thought they had stolen my teacher's appearance. I had every intention to kill them. But now I regret taking this course of action." She thinks back to Migeru saying she will regret this. "They said they wanted to talk to me. I may be forced to take up the offer now to hopefully forge better relations. But it might be too late." She sighs, "If push comes to shove then I will take care of them myself."
Luminous' face contorts into that of concern, "Hinata, you may be strong, stronger than when we first fought but you can't win against them. Don't attempt to fight them. I don't want to lose you over such an idiotic mistake. If they have asked for negotiations before then that might be our best option. The one called Rimuru doesn't strike me as the type to oppose Ruberios over a personal grudge." She thinks about something for a second, recalling some old memories. "But as for Migeru, I'm not too sure. If you do attempt to negotiate with them make sure it's successful. If necessary, I don't even mind if you reveal that I am a Demon Lord or even the God Ruminas. Just don't provoke them."
Hinata is left a little flustered. If she's willing to do that then they really are a threat she cannot take lightly. As she thinks about this she fails to notice, she called Rimuru the one called Rimuru but said Migeru's name casually, something Louis and Roy notice. However, with a more pressing issue on their minds they both choose to ignore it for now. They continue talking about other recent events including a break in by a strange undead wearing a mask that Hinata managed to stop. Eventually finishing they all prepare to leave.
However, knowing what she will do next, Luminous sets some final ground rules for Hinata to give her an idea of what she can and can't do around the Twin Rulers. She makes it explicitly clear that she is only to fight if it is the only option. Even ignoring her pride as the captain of the holy knights and running would be preferable to Luminous. Hinata, despite not truly understanding the terrifying power of Demon Lord Migeru accepts the orders and says, "I understand, I will see what I can do."
As she walks out she hears something. A small voice whispers in her ear, "Good choice." Before disappearing.
Alerted to someone's presence she reaches for her sword. Looking around with a serious look in her eyes she spots nothing. She calms down wondering if what she heard was just in her imagination. Her mind wanders to the merchants that gave her the information that told her that the two slimes killed Shizue. "As I thought. I shouldn't trust anyone so easily." Resolved to see the true nature of the Twin Rulers herself she prepares to journey to the monster nation of Tempest.
She continues to walk away from where she met with Luminous with a little caution. Behind her a small fly-like being lands on top of the church. It's a Migeru clone hidden by making it so light passes right by it with [Hermetic Reality] and wearing Magicule hiding technology. It sits down. It watches as Hinata disappears from view with an emotionless face. This particular [Omni-Duplication] clone is assigned to the church, using it, Migeru can watch the goings on inside the church with little risk. And it has just caught something interesting.
Back in Tempest, Migeru sees what happened. "Looks like Hinata's coming, better get ready for that. This'll also be my chance to find the Rosso's for later so I gotta get ready to do that as well. Hmm, things might get a little hectic here. Well, nothing I can't handle." He sits in a thoughtful position as he thinks more about something Luminous almost said earlier. "Hmm, my what? What were you going to say, Luminous?"
Migeru's Perspective
A few hours pass by from when I spied on Luminous and Hinata. Not wasting any time I spent them working on my latest projects. With me here and Rimuru handling the politics I dumped on him a year ago it seems that both of us have been working non-stop for the past few hours. Rimuru has a lot to deal with now that the war with Clayman is over, it's kinda funny how I dumped this all on him. I could help but, nah, he can handle it. Plus, I've got other stuff to focus on right now.
I tighten the last screw on the Magicule device I've been working on. It's complete, invention 193-1, The Reaper. It's finally finished. What it does is simple, the name kinda gives it away, it harvests souls.
The way it works is it casts a massive invisible barrier around a programmable area where souls are trapped in and led into a certain area where they are then captured and contained. I'm planning to use this to harvest souls from not only the civil war Rimuru is about to cause in Farmus but to keep collecting constantly as other people die over time.
Not the most heroic thing to do, in fact it's kinda brutal given I'm preventing them from entering the reincarnation cycle but I definitely can't really be considered a hero with what I do. Besides, it's for the greater good. I'll come save their souls later when I get stronger. If I can pull a Rimuru later then I could come save their souls after this is all over. But that's a thought for later, for now I need to get this up and running.
I've decided to do this because now that Ranryo, Cerulean and possibly even Souei are top contenders for Demon Lords, there simply won't be enough souls to afford evolving them plus the original 12 patrons into Demon Lords later. If I don't do something someone will be left behind. That's not exactly ideal so I'm left with no choice. This device will make up for the gap.
If all goes well I should profit a few hundred thousand souls over the next few months which is good. However, the timing might be tight because with my intervention the Eastern Empire might get some ideas faster. With only a few months until the Eastern Empire invasion I have to get at least 300,000 souls before their ceremony. Playing it safe, this is possible when taking into account the death rates of Farmus and its population. The number seems high at first glance but that is actually just 1/75th of Farmus' population over the course of several months. It's not too crazy, in fact with the civil war I might end up with more than I expect.
Minimum, Cerulean needs to become a Demon Lord. He's currently the strongest person outside of Rimuru and I, being comparable to Diablo in a lot of aspects with [Great Sage] added on top of that. I wonder how strong he'll be as a Demon Slime? With how strong Cerulean is now, the boost he'll get upon evolution will definitely make him easily the strongest citizen in Tempest which is something I want to see.
I focus on the device again. There's another interesting thing about it. I found a way to...
{You're welcome.}
What was that [Solomon]?
{...}
I see. You're starting to get sassy lately you know. Fine, YOU found a way to link the device to OUR Magicule dimension. How's that? Did that satisfy you?
{...}
Glad we came to an agreement. Anyways, this makes it so I can retrieve the souls whenever I want which will make transferring them here easier. It's a pretty good workaround to avoid having to collect them from Farmus manually. Making it wasn't as convenient though. Even with [Infinite Thought Acceleration] it still took me...
{Hrrm.}
...and [Solomon] a pretty decent amount of time to make. You know, with how you act now, I wonder how you'll be as a Manas. Wait, hold on.
[Solomon] and [Raphael] do whatever Rimuru and I desire them to do. I've been desiring [Solomon] to evolve into a Manas since it first evolved. Does that mean it's been actively looking into emotion or something? That might explain the rapid development of basic emotion in [Solomon].
Without a catalyst I highly doubt it will ever truly understand them unless it analyzes them for a really long time but it might make [Solomon] more emotional than Ciel was after evolution. That's actually pretty convenient. Looking through the emotions it's only displayed pride and anger though, not a good sign. Hopefully it shows something positive soon.
Well, ignoring that. I create a clone of myself with [Omni-Duplication]. This upgrade from [Body Double] is very useful. It boosts my total number of possible clones to a possibly unlimited amount given I can maintain them all which I can. It's making spying much easier. I am no longer limited to one at a time like before where I was stuck only spying on Yuuki for a while. I give it the device and send it to place the device in the center of Farmus. Why not go myself? Well, 3, 2, 1...
{Notice- Ultimate Skill [Saul] subskill [Tempest Link] has been activated.
Connection 1, Rimuru Tempest, has been opened.}
Rimuru has something to tell me. "Hello? Migeru?"
"Hey, what's happening?"
"We're in the middle of a meeting now and would like for you to come join us. Do you have the time? I know you said you were busy but it's important."
"Yeah, sure, I'll be right there."
"Really? Thanks."
{Notice- Ultimate Skill [Saul] subskill [Tempest Link] has been deactivated.
Connection 1, Rimuru Tempest, has been closed.}