16 Liberation and Zodiac

A/N: I forgot to write this in the chapter last night, but this arc is going to be a mini time skip. That means it's going to have fast pacing and only a bit of dialogue. Don't worry about it too much. It'll only be for two or three chapters in total.

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After collapsing the wall to the slave storage area, Tor and the other elves rushed in. They quickly released the other elves and began to explain the situation to them all. Of course, they were all pissed at being betrayed, but they were even more upset that it was a human who figured it out for them.

After two minutes, all the elves were free and all the able-bodied ones, or the ones with at least a bit of combat experience, armed themselves with bows and shortswords while the rest used magic. The commotion did alert several guards but we didn't have to worry too much about that. Yue had already infiltrated the building using [Shadow Step].

The original plan was for me to pretend to be captured while Yue infiltrated the auction house and gathered information, such as dossiers, business ledgers, audience attendance lists, etc from the management. Mio would pose as a noblewoman with Tomoe and Alice as her guards and go in through the front door and once the auction began, we would strike.

Of course, the plan was going a bit more smoothly than I had imagined since Tor took charge and the elves were more enthusiastic to be led by another elf than a human. Once everything was gone, I made my way to the auditorium. The announcer had no idea that his 'merchandise' had all escaped.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I know why you are all here tonight! Many of you want to get your hands on some fine young elven slaves!" He said as the crowd cheered a bit. He waited for them all to calm down before continuing. "But before we do that, we have a special product for those who wish for a bit more human tastes. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the most handsome man in the world, known as the traveling saint, the Violet Swordsman, SHIKI!" He yelled as I walked onto the stage, much to the gawks of many men and swooning of many women.

The announcer looked at me happily for a moment before he realized that I wasn't in chains nor was I being escorted via armed guards like was the plan. He began to sweat profusely as he timidly took a step back. "W-wha are you doing out of your shackles!?! Where are the guards!?!" He yelled, silencing the crowd who now knew something was wrong.

I continued walking towards the announcer slowly before summoning my weapon and raising it above my head. The announcer fell on his ass while shivering and began to beg. "Please don't! I have a family!"

"So did the elves you kidnapped," I said as I brought it down, splitting the man in two and causing a wide sword slash to split the building in two. The audience was frozen in shock and fear. They knew that I was a clear and present danger to them. They also knew that the slave trade, especially the trading of elves, was prohibited by most nations since they didn't want to anger the other demi-human races into war. They couldn't do anything and they couldn't report what I did because they would have to admit to being in a place to buy elven slaves illegally if they did so.

Unfortunately for them, I didn't care. There weren't going to be any witnesses to the massacre after tonight anyway, so it didn't matter that I wasn't hiding my face. "Mio. Now is the time!" I yelled.

'Yes, husband!" She called out as she stood up from the crowd. She then proceeded to use her [Weaver] Unique Skill to tie them all up in her webbing. She even covered their mouths so we wouldn't have to worry about them screaming or talking too much.

"Whew! Now that all the people who wanted to enslave me are rounded up, let's get rid of them." I stated. That's right. This whole plan was just to get rid of the slavers and their clients who wanted to enslave me for my looks. Helping out the captured elves was simply a bonus that I was able to use as a pretext, killing two birds with one stone.

The Kingdom of Dorei was also known as the Slaver Kingdom and was responsible for the supply of demi-human slaves to the western nations. They also liked to kidnap civilians from across the border with nearby nations to use in their trade. In recent years, they had also kidnapped young noblewomen and their daughters to use as hostages for negotiations.

It wasn't surprising then, that Luminous asked me for a favor a few weeks ago. Dorei had started selling vampires too once word got around that 'Demon Lord' Roy Valintine made his way to Ruberios. While most nations saw him as the scapegoat that he was supposed to be, the slavers of Dorei saw it as an opportunity to sell vampiric slaves. Obviously, she wasn't happy about this, but officially, the stance of the church was that vampires are evil, so going out of her way to help wasn't something she could do openly.

So it's more accurate to say I was killing three birds with one stone.

After everyone was tied up, I created an Absolute Spatial Barrier that blocked all forms of teleportation or communication coming in or out of the barrier. Tor and I then went to the head slaver's office and interrogated him. Like I suspected, he was hired by the Autumn Faction in the elven village to kidnap them all. Thankfully, he and his men were professionals, so they didn't violate any of their targets since the nobles would want to keep the virgins for themselves.

Tor tied them up and I had Tomoe guard him to use his testimony against the other elves. I could use their migration back to their village as my excuse to go to Jura. All of the elves had made their way to the auditorium and were shocked at seeing so many noble men and women tied up and captured. Many wanted to get revenge themselves but they were a bit robbed of their

"Alright, let's get out of here back. Lord Shiki, what are you going to do with all the people you have tied up?" Tor asked me.

Many of the elves were looking at me with curiosity. Surely I wouldn't kill them all, would I? Oh but I would. I REALLY would. After all, there was an experiment I was about to run.

I looked over to the crowd of elves and spoke up. "I'm sure all of you would like to become stronger, right?"

Most looked at one another while questioning themselves before they nodded at me. I smiled before raining my hand to the crowd of nobles. I then used a bit of [Spirit Magic] combined with [Metamorphosis Magic] on them and turned them all into red balls of energy. I killed the egos of the souls and converted their physical bodies into cores of magicules and spirit particles. I then added [Evolution Magic] to them so anyone who touches them would absorb them and then evolve.

The elves all opened their eyes wide in shock before I manipulated the new blood-red cores in front of each elven man, woman, and child there. They all looked at it apprehensively before turning to me for an explanation.

"Those are Spirit Cores. Touching them will evolve you into a new, higher race of elf. It will give you stronger bodies and higher magicule reserves. You may need the extra strength for dealing with the issues to come. Many of the other elven councilors will fight back against you and it may start a civil war, but with this, you will all have the decisive advantage." I said.

It wasn't a lie. Even if my little experiment here didn't cause them to evolve like I think it will, they would still gain a significant amount of power from their bodies absorbing so many magicules and spirit particles.

Most elves were apprehensive, but Tor didn't hesitate at all and quickly touched the core in front of him. His body glowed and a radiant red aura surrounded him. He became slightly taller and his ears became longer. His green eyes expanded leaving only a sea of green where his pupils once were. He also became much stronger. He was now at least Rank Special A. Considering before his transformation he was Rank A, that was a massive power boost. If you gave him a few more years, he could even become a Self Proclaimed Demon Lord with his power.

"Amazing!" Toranir said. His voice was slightly deeper and his aura was far denser. All the elves opened their eyes wide when they saw this. They immediately touched the cores and they all began to evolve as the auditorium was now filled with light. After a few moments, the light died down. The Race of the Blood Elves had just been born.

(A/N: Just think of these Blood Elves as similar in appearance to the WoW ones.)

...

Dorei was a country located in a strangely strategic place. It was located on the steps to the Kusha Mountains and bordered the Jura Great Forest in the East. In the south was the Sorceos Dynasty of Sarion while in the north was the Kingdom of Brumund. Its west bordered various smaller nations, all of which were too weak to threaten them, which is why they could kidnap so many noblewomen and civilians from them without being crushed by them. The kingdom also had a large number of precious metals in it, which is why they first started using slaves.

It didn't take long after the deaths of the hundreds of nobles from both inside and outside of the Kingdom for it to fall into chaos. Most of the slave masters were hunted and purged by the Blood Elves and other liberated Demi-humans we came across during our trip to Jura. At some point or another, most came to see Toranir as the leader of a Demi-human rebellion that was gaining traction.

The Blood Elves, probably thinking that marching back to their village with an army of Demi-humans following them would cause a civil war, decided to use their time outside the forest to conquer the kingdom.

Of course, I helped Tor, who became my new drinking buddy, in his little Kingdom building project. The fighting didn't last long and I used most of the human casualties from the fighting and the deaths of the slavers to collect souls. Mio and Tomoe both met the requirements to become Awakened Demon Lords, so after I became a True Hero again, I wanted to awaken them as well.

The Civil War lasted for only about two years and once it was over, Dorei was no more. In its place was the Demi-human nation of Zodiac. Why they chose that name is beyond me, but that's what they did.

This had major ramifications across the west. It accelerated the creation of the Council of the West to deal with the issue. Luminous loved it. The tension from the sudden rise in Demi-human power in the Western Nations caused many to turn to Lumanism while allowing the Church to reform its military to create the Order of the Paladins. Dwargon was also happy that it wasn't the only nation of Demi-humans in the West, so King Gazef the Wise, father of Prince Gazel, offered a mutual trade agreement.

I didn't want to get involved in politics too heavily, but I would occasionally stop by the palace of Zodiac to drink with Toranir and give advice. He even built me a nice mansion to live in, free of charge, of course, for all my help. I wasn't the only one who began enjoying the slow life, however.

Alice, after becoming a Saint herself, which was due to me using the same [Spirit Magic] refining process on her, started training knights for the Kingdom. Though she never became its official knight commander, many still saw her as one. Not like she hated the job or was bad at it. She was originally a Knight-Captain after all.

Yue also became much stronger due to our Gemini Contract. Whenever she wasn't busy sticking to me as my 'secretary', she would teach classes at the Zodiac Academy of Magic. Her classes weren't ever scheduled and were very sudden and spur of the moment. While at first, this made her unpopular, her fantastic teaching methods and ideology garnered a lot of respect from both teachers and students. No one wanted to miss a day of school or they may miss out on the chance to learn magic from the best of the best. I even saw a young Razen in her class from time to time.

Mio opened a small textile business to keep her busy during her time off. At first, her strange style of clothing, mostly being eastern wear such as Kimonos and Yukatas, Qipao and Hanfu Dresses, as well as an assortment of other eastern clothing wasn't all that popular, but it slowly picked up in speed until it couldn't be ignored. Mio eventually became so overwhelmed she needed help running her shop. Interestingly, this problem was how I figured out how to name a monster without losing strength and magicules. I named a few dozen spiders and used [Evolution Magic] to turn them into Arachnids to help run the shop for her and make more silk. Their silk became a local specialty of Zodiac and was highly sought after in other nations.

Even Luminous has her clothes made of this Silk now.

Tomoe stayed with me most of the time as my loyal Samurai but occasionally went out on 'journeys' into the mountains and the forest every now and then to hunt unintelligent monsters who threatened the land. She loved pretending to serve me as her lord and imagined that her escapades were 'protecting the lands from evil'.

Like this, three more years passed. It was finally time to confront the elves of the original Elven village of Greenwood.

Toranir, along with a number of Blood Elves, returned to the village one day and left his wife named, I sh*t you not, Alex (as in Alexstrasza) in charge of Zodiac for a few days. I'm not sure what happened there, as Tor never said, but when he returned, he brought back a number of elven refugees and the Elven Village itself had become a friendly nation. He asked me if I could make them into more blood Elves but I decided to make them into Drow with the excuse that I didn't have any more prisoners.

In reality, I just always liked the Drow and would always play as one in D&D. It's not like the power boost was any different from the transformation into a Blood Elf, their skin just became slightly grey.

I may or may not have also gained the Title 'Father of the New Elves' and become something of a folk hero in Zodiac, but that's beside the point.

After a grand total of four years in Zodiac, I decided it was time to begin traveling once again. The Chosen Hero had just awoken and that meant the confrontation with Veldora wasn't far off. It was time to stop procrastinating and go and get a Hero's Egg.

My party, after saying our farewells to everyone, left for the Sorcerios Dynasty of Sarion's capital city of Galut, or more specifically, I was headed to the Dwelling of the Spirits to meet with Ramiris.