Chapter 6: Attack and Counterattack

- Silas -

"Hey, what's this thing? It's so tasty. Is this what Milim was talking about?" The little fairy was buzzing like a mosquito around my head while I tried to cook for the rest of the group. This fairy/pixie was Ramiris.

Demon Lord Ramiris.

Somehow my impression of Demon Lords is down in the dumps.

Are they really beings who can be tricked by chocolate bars and cupcakes?

"It's called a cookie." I answered, cutting the ingredients.

"Cookie? So what was the thing Milim was talking about?"

"I don't have the ingredients to cook it right now. You will have to visit my restaurant sometime to eat those dishes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Hahahaha you are good. If anyone troubles you, tell me. I will beat them up." And with that she started her fake shadow boxing while I concentrated on my work.

The thing about her is that she is also the Queen of the Spirits.

I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen what I saw during the contract ceremony.

The ceremony was an experience worth remembering.

There were many strange things which happened during the ceremony but it was a given due to our strange circumstances and origins.

Ikki was the first one to try his hand at the summoning.

He summoned a Darkness Spirit who made a contract with him.

According to Ramiris, there were Spirits or different ranks. Low, High or Superior, Elemental Lords, etc.

Elemental Lords were spirits who could fight on part with Demon Lords and Light and Darkness Elemental Lords were special as in, the people they bless can be blessed by Ramiris and gain something called a Hero's Egg. It was a Human's Version of a Demon Lord Seed.

If he is able to hatch the egg, he will become a Hero or a True Hero, like a True Demon Lord.

The entire fiasco gave him several things, first of which were the Skills.

Extra Skill: Iron Will.

Extra Skill: Blade Steal.

Extra Skill: Mana Manipulation.

Similar things happened with Tanya. She too got a Darkness Spirit.

Her Skills were called Extra Skill: Ruthless and Extra Skill: Merchant. They basically made her a Black Hearted Businesswoman, well more than she already was, if that was even possible somehow.

Brandish got an Earth Spirit.

She got an Extra Skill called Spirit Caller, which increased her affinity with Spirit Magic and Summoning Magic.

Things became weird when Lavinia went for the contract.

She summoned a Light Spirit, which was actually a good thing. The problem was that when she got a blessing from Ramiris, both her Sacred Gears went haywire.

They manifested as two spirits of their own, one a Fire and another of Ice. According to Ramiris, those two Spirits were already almost at the Elemental Lord level more or less when they were unblessed. They became even stronger after the blessing.

Lavinia got a few Skills of her own.

Unique Skill: Magician.

Extra Skill: Ice Manipulation.

Extra Skill: Fire Manipulation.

Extra Skill: Light Manipulation.

The most surprising one was however, Orihime. She didn't summon any Spirit per say but all her Spirits evolved from Ramiris' Blessing. All fucking six of them. They weren't exactly Elemental Lord yet but they were incredibly close.

Shun'ou, Ayame, Tsubaki, Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily. They were of Six different elements and were somehow already a part of Orihime's soul. This increased her power by a very large margin.

One of her Spirits was of Light nature and when it evolved to an Elemental Lord, there was a chance that Orihime could get a Hero Egg or even directly become a Pseudo Spirit herself.

It was apparently not unheard of either.

The Elves in this world had originated from a wind spirit who was the ancestor of the Elf Race. According to Ramiris, the woman was still alive to this day.

The mother of the Ruler of the Sarion, Sylvia El Ru, the True Ancestor of the Elven race.

According to Ramiris, if Orihime were to continue to become stronger, she would become something similar to the current Elven Empress.

Actually, even Lavinia had a similar chance but it was much lower than Orihime.

Now wasn't that a shocker.

But apparently this wasn't enough.

The skills which she got were even more insane.

Unique Skill: Spiritualist.

It was a buffed version of Brandish' Skill and allowed her to Summon and control any kind of Spirit, gave her an insane buff when she used Spirit based magic and made her a magnet to all kinds of Spirits.

Ramiris had all but claimed her as her champion because of this. According to her, she wanted a strong lackey because other Demon Lords had strong people with them but she didn't.

Rimuru had to summon a Demon into a Puppet Body for her while I named it to use as a substitute for her.

She still hadn't given up on her.

Then came her second Unique Skill: Rejection.

It allowed her to Reject events.

This was apparently the function of her Device as well. This was an ability comparable to my own Masterchef. That's saying something.

The strangest thing however was Saitama's contract.

He did summon a spirit. A light Spirit surprisingly. Not an elemental Lord but a Superior Ranked.

That said, nothing happened when he made a contract with it. The funniest thing was that the Spirit fainted as soon as the contract happened and now Saitama was taking care of it. Nothing happened even when he was blessed by Ramiris.

According to her, she felt the Blessing slip away.

Not even Great Sage was able to find any problem with the process so we had to give it up for the time being. It however theorised that he might have gained some kind of Magic Resistance because Ramiris' blessing slipped away. It must have been something quite potent.

According to Ramiris, he did have a change. He was now a spiritual life form like a Saint of humans but there was no change in his aura or strength at all.

It was a case she hadn't encountered till now. But then again, she hadn't encountered several people getting Hero's Egg at the same time or even someone like Lavinia and Orihime.

The guy himself wasn't bothered at all. He was even happy because Ramiris told him that Spirits can control how they look to some extent and thus his hair could grow back in the future.

And thus ended the most unusual Spirit contract since the start of time, Ramiris' words, not mine.

Now, how did this lead to me making food for everyone?

Well, Milim had come to this place and bragged a lot about the food I cook. I was happy on one hand that I was getting more business but on the other hand, I was now stuck with another Demon Lord hounding me for snacks.

"Lavi, Orihime, help me bring the food out to the table." I asked them as I carried some of the plates myself.

Some other plates were carried by the spirits in the cave.

Rimuru's students were adorable.

Especially Chloe O' Bell, the black haired girl who had an obvious crush on Rimuru.

Then there was Alice Rondo, the girl who acted like a princess and was attached to Saitama and liked playing video games with him.

There was a kid called Gale Gibson who had a crush on Tanya.

The other two kids were excited to learn swordsmanship from Ikki who was trying to master his own powers.

Everyone gathered in the room where the table was prepared and we served the food.

"Where will you be going next, Rimuru?"

The guy looked up at me with his mouth full of food. He swallowed it before answering. "We will go back to drop the students first and then return to Tempest."

"Will me going there cause a problem? I heard that it was a human city of adventurers and they might not appreciate me."

"Hmm, that might be a problem. They didn't say anything to me though but we never know. It won't take much time. You can come with us till the outskirts of the country and then head forward. We will drop the kids back and catch up."

"Sure. You guys are fine with it, right?" I confirmed with the others and nodded.

Ikki was here on his term's end holidays and he was training for the next year. Those bastards had held him back due to the pressure from his family.

I wonder how their faces will be when Ikki returns back with his new powers. Although, it will take him a bit of time to master them.

Orihime was the same. Kisuke took care of her absence.

"Ramiris-sama, do you mind me asking a question?" Ikki asked Ramiris who was eating her dessert.

"Umm umm ask. I am the most reliable and knowledgeable Ramiris of the Labyrinth hahahaha."

That doesn't fill my heart with a lot of confidence.

I heard that Humans have some further evolutions in this world. How does that work and what are those evolutions?"

"Humans? Well they can evolve into Enlightened and then Saints. Rudra even went and became a Divine Human but that's very hard, you know. Enlightened are strong and Saints are even stronger. Divine Humans are the strongest Humans."

….

….

"Divine as in Gods?"

"Well, you can call them Gods because of Divinity but they are not exactly Conceptual Gods. They are just beings with Divinity. Every race can become a Divine if they continue evolving further."

"Even Demons?"

"Hmm. All Races."

Wow.

I guess we learn something new everyday.

We asked her several things about this world and listened to her stories. They were quite interesting.

- Yuri Alpha -

She kept the paperwork aside as she sensed an intrusion in the barrier around the town. Do these fools never learn?

Silas-sama had given the responsibility of the town to them while he was away and these fools were trying to cause trouble.

"Narberal. There are critters in the town again. Check them out and see if they are here to rescue the previous ones?"

The Manga industry which the Supreme Beings had started had taken the industry by storm.

Each week their sales were increasing. Thankfully, Rimuru-sama had restocked the last time he came in.

They are still purchasing lands and properties to settle the Kijin and establish their bases. This was easier said than done.

Their Gold could not be used as they didn't have a reliable buyer due to being new in this world. It would attract too much attention and they were not ready for such a thing currently.

Thus, their business was the only source of revenue for them.

The sales were increasing at a frightening pace and they will have to establish a proper printing press soon.

Yuri was managing all the paperwork for the business as well as the town in the absence of Tanya.

The education of the Kijin was going well but they were not quick enough to make them able to manage business this fast. The only ones even remotely good enough to manage the territory were Shuna and her guard Hiro. They were currently visiting Tempest for work.

Also, only two hundred Kijin were not enough to manage a big city. They needed more people.

As she was wondering about these, she sensed her connection with Narberal being interrupted and immediately got up and raced towards the place where she was fighting.

In the place was a child wearing the clothes of an exorcist. He had a wound on his shoulder and looked at her warily.

"Oh, not another one. Just how many scary maids are here in this place? I don't have time to fight you."

"What have you done to Narberal?" She asked, her voice cold. She waited for the answer while using her Presence Search to search for Narberal but didn't find any clue of her.

"Nothing. In fact, she is quite safe, if not a bit pre-indisposed. Let me show you." She took a stance as he threw pieces of small papers towards her which turned into some kinds of beasts.

She summoned her gauntlet and smacked the beast away towards the exorcist who fell in the air to dodge and she chased with her Fly Pendant.

She punched another puppet but this time around, letters spread from it, binding her hand. She summoned her Ki to break the bindings but the exorcist had completed his spell.

"This will keep you busy for a while. Go meet your colleague."

She tried to defend herself but found herself in a strange place. The world seemed as if inverted.

"Yuri!" She found Narberal a distance away.

"Narberal. What place is this?"

"It seems like a Pocket Dimension. I was caught in the trap and was locked here. I am sorry."

"No. This world has different Magic Systems and a lot of things we don't know of. No need to be down. Find a way out of this place. The exorcist might be attacking the base." She asked.

"I poisoned him with my attack. He will be weakened severely if he stays there. The Kijin might be able to hold him back. I will be able to break this barrier in a while." Narberal reassured her.

Yuri hoped that nothing bad happened during that time.