Player Three

After my evolution had completed, the rainbow swirl released me and I regained consciousness. I was immediately amazed by the amount of power I felt flowing through me. I was easily ten times stronger than before when I was at mid-rank S in terms of power but now I feel like I could take on Veldora, though I quickly calmed these thoughts down, thinking it would be bad to become too arrogant. I flexed my aura before retracting it all back into myself. I don't want to be like Rimuru when he first came out of the cave, releasing his aura all over the place.

I quickly scanned through my Skills and noticed that I had two new Ultimates as well as a few Intrinsic Skills. Furthermore, [Restoration Magic] was changed to [Time Magic] and can both rewind and fast-forward things in time rather than just rewind it.

I also noted that most of my Ancient magics were tweaked to become more powerful. For example, [Creation Magic] now allows me to transmute mass, so I can turn one kilo of stone or water into a kilo of gold if I wanted or vice versa, so long as I obeyed the laws of conservation of mass. I could also 'create' something from nothing now. Well, more specifically, I could create any object or material out of pure magicules rather than needing mass, but this method was very inefficient.

Finally, I noticed that [Zaphkiel], also known as the angel whose name literally translates into God's Knowledge, allowed me to convert anything I can touch into Data. that means I can even store objects and people. Furthermore, since they are now 'data' I can alter them however I want. I think this ability took parts from [Spirit Magic], [Creation Magic], and [Metamorphosis Magic] since they all focus on the manipulation/altering of organic, inorganic, and spiritual targets.

Either way, I was quite OP as of now, though I don't think I could 1v1 someone like Guy just yet.

"Hoh? You're quite the strong one then?" I heard an amused voice from behind me. Thinking it was a spirit, I turned around and accepted the compliment.

"Thanks, I gue...." I stopped halfway through my sentence when I turned around and noticed a handsome man standing opposite of me. He had long, messy, red hair, red eyes fair skin, and two blackened marks under his eyes.

'Fuck that's Guy Crimsion' I thought to myself. I looked over to Ramiris in the corner who was looking away while whistling.

Mio and Tomoe were standing behind me (they were in front before I turned around) and they had no clue who this man was who suddenly showed up. Yue and Alice, on the other hand, were slightly panicking as they were frozen in place with both fear and uncertainty.

"Demon Lord Guy Crimson," I said while putting myself on guard. My words knocked Yue and Alice out of their daze and Alice immediately drew her weapon. Tomoe also drew her katana while Mio and Yue prepared their strongest attack spells and Skills.

I raised my hand to them, telling them to stand down, which they did reluctantly. Guy simply smirked before speaking again. "Do you really want to fight? I don't mind doing it here, but ..." Guy taunted before looking towards Ramiris.

'How strong is this guy anyway?' I thought.

[To the nearest measurable degree, Guy's magicules exceed yours by at least two times, though due to his vast combat experience and likely dozens of Ultimate Skills, as he is a collector, his power should exceed yours by at least five times. Recommend not confronting.]

'Oh, so [World Sage] underwent an evolution then? Its speaking a bit more fluidly, but I shouldn't be distracted.' I thought before I smirked at him.

Guy was momentarily surprised by my smirk, though he took it for false bravado. "I came here because I when I heard the voice of the world, I thought someone must be playing tricks on me, but looking at you and Ramiris has me convinced." He stated before looking at me seriously. "You've done something seriously worrying here."

"Heh, to be honest, I didn't wake up this morning thinking I'd be changing the world, but that's just life for people at our levels right?" I say a little cockily.

"You think you are at my level?" Guy asked

"Not right now, but soon..." I stated.

Guy looked at me and smirked for a minute before disappearing.

*Clang!*

An explosion of air threw Yue, Mio, Alice, and Tomoe away and blew away several of the lingering spirits who were watching our interaction as Guy's fist clashed with my weapon. There was a tense standoff as Guy and I looked into each other's eyes for a few moments before Guy smirked and backed off.

'Holy Shit that was dangerous!' I yelled in my mind. 'If it wasn't for my million times [Thought Acceleration] combined with a bit of [Time Magic] to increase my perception speed by another 10 times, he would have hit me without me being able to react. He is WAY too broken.'

"Your very interesting you know," he said.

"Oh, how so?" I thought. I sensed that everyone was fine, just knocked back a bit due to the strong wind. I didn't dare break eye contact with the demon lord in front of me in case that brief moment has me being sent back to Gabriel's desk.

"You were able to block one of my strikes. I can name the number of people who can do that on one than and one of them is dead. Your blade also didn't shatter. I've never had that happen to me before." He stated.

"Thanks for the compliment, now, are we done with this or do we go again?' I say. I have to show confidence to him otherwise the moment he loses respect for me, he will attack again.

Basically, I'm faking it 'till I make it.

Guy smiled wildly and looked like he was about to charge a second time before he was kicked in the butt. Literally.

"Oy! Guy! How can you just come into someone's place and start a fight!?! Look at this place! You've nearly destroyed the Dwelling of the Spirits and killed my benefactor!" Ramiris yelled.

Guy just stood up and looked like he was 'sooo done' with this situation. He had lost his motivation and so did I. While Ramiris was busy loud-mouthing off to Guy, who ignored her, I looked back to my wives.

"You girls alright?" I said before using a bit of [Time Magic] on them to heal any wounds they may have had.

"We are fine, however..." Yue started while looking angrily at Guy.

"Young Master..." Tomoe said, as she felt useless in front of Guy. She, who like role-playing as my Samurai, hated it when I fought, wanting to be the one who fought for me.

Mio simply looked pissed at Guy and Alice had to hold her back from storming over and attacking him. She didn't give a damn that she would die. She was only angry that her husband was attacked and wanted revenge. Her yandere side was definitely coming out in full force.

"As expected from the strongest Demon Lord. He's way too powerful" Alice sighed in defeat while holding Mio.

I felt an arm suddenly wrap around my head as I turned over to see Guy next to me, looking at us all talking.

"So. Hows's about you become a Demon Lord then?" He immediately asked.

"I respectfully decline," I said immediately.

"Come on now, don't be like that," He said whispering into my ear.

"Thanks, but I'd rather create my own organization as opposed to your Ten Great Demon Lords," I replied.

Guy looked at me before sighing in defeat and letting go of me. He walked away towards the exit of the chamber a bit before stopping and turning around. He looked directly at me before smiling a bit. "If you're going to be player three, then I suggest you gather your pieces quickly." He said before walking out of the room.

Ramiris walked over to our side before sighing again. "Sorry about that Shiki. Guy likes to keep the world balanced, so he often eliminates the people who threaten that balance or offers them to become Demon Lords."

"What did he mean by 'Player Three' and 'gather your pieces?' "Yue asked.

Ramiris looked like she was having a bit of a tough time trying to answer that question. She wanted to avoid it, but it was obvious that she couldn't. After a moment, she sighed and decided to come clean.

"Sigh. Guy and the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, Rudra something or other, are playing a game with each other and the winner of that game will take the world as their prize." Ramiris said.

"What?" Alice said in shock. It was no secret among the Western Nations that the Eastern Empire wanted to control the world. Their multiple invasion attempts were only ever stopped by various Demon Lords and on a few occasions, a rampaging Veldora.

Everyone thought that they were simply lucky, as the Eastern Empire seemed to possess multiple people with Demon Lord Class strength, so they thought that the Ten Great Demon Lords were an organization of powerful Majin who wanted to stay out of the control against the Empire and that was why they worked together, not because they were just 'pieces' in the game between two powers.

"It's hard to believe, but I guess it makes sense. Guy and his subordinates cull the human populations in the Western Nations whenever they became too powerful or when one country gains too much power. I guess he needs to keep them weak. No point in claiming a prize that is just as hard to subjugate as the Eastern Empire." Yue stated, more to herself than anything.

"If I'm going to be a 'Player Three' then I guess I'll need allies too. Strong ones..." I said with a thought.

"Just so you know, both Guy and Rudra have True Dragons working for them you know!" Ramiris stated as she swung her arms around in defiance of my words.

"WHAT!?!" Yue and Alice yelled. Ramiris was a bit surprised when she was suddenly yelled at and shrunk a bit before continuing.

"Y-yeah, Guy has Velzard working for him while Rudra has Velgrend," She said.

"Hmmm? should I get Veldora then?" I thought aloud.

"No way! Aunt Luminous would be furious!" Yue said. I turned towards Yue before patting her head softly.

"Of course, I was only joking. Not like that guy would listen anyways." I said while patting her. I looked at Ramiris for a moment. I then smiled wide, finally having a plan. She looked back and was a bit confused. As I stared at her, she quickly moved to cover her chest.

"Pervert!" She yelled.

I looked at her with half-closed eyes for a moment before sighing again. "I wasn't- you know what, I don't care," I said before looking towards my wives.

"If Guy has the Demon Lords and Majin, then let's make our own faction, separate from the other two. Let's create a Youkai faction. I'll use Phanasmal Lords as my pieces. I'm not really interested in the prize, but I think I'll play just for fun." I said.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Ramiris asked.

I smirked. "Well, to start with, I'll need a bit of territory for the Youkai to grow and evolve. Jura and Zodiac will do for now." I said.

"Idiot! Jura belongs to Veldora. He isn't someone you can negotiate with, so he won't allow it" Ramiris said.

"So we deal with Veldora first. Luckily, I have just the right way to do so." I think.