241. Face to Face With The Demon Lord
After finishing off Kumoko, Ariel who originally intended to leave immediately stopped when she saw Izumi's silhouette.
Izumi seemed to remain calm when Ariel's gaze fell on him. He just stayed on the spot when Ariel slowly approached him. As Ariel arrived in front of Izumi, she wrinkled her forehead because a ruler of authority like her doesn't seem to be able to read Izumi's status other than his 3 auxiliary skills. A ruler of authority is obtained after a person has one of the 7 deadly sins and 7 virtues skills. With the ruler of authority, a person can read the status of others even though the status is blocked, and vice versa, except for fellow rulers of authority. Kumoko's ruler of wisdom is an exception because, with that skill, Kumoko can find out the status of a person who has one of the 7 deadly sins and the 7 virtues skills.
While putting on a sharp gaze, Ariel asked.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
Izumi looked at the lolita in front of him. She has short black hair, with a pure white stripe in her bangs. Her face looks young with pale skin and a pair of red eyes. For her outfit, she wore a tube-top and hot pants, with straps around her waist and legs.
Izumi looked back at her while saying.
"How rude you are, little missy. Before you ask someone's name, should you introduce yourself first?"
Ariel glared at him while answering coldly.
"Ariel."
Hearing Ariel's short answer, Izumi immediately said.
"Ariel, huh? My name is Michael Jackson, nice to meet you."
Even though it didn't show on his face, in fact, he was laughing inside. If Kumoko heard what Izumi said, she would definitely show a "wtf" mark on her forehead.
After that, Izumi continued.
"I just wondered who made such a fuss that it could be heard from afar. Are you experimenting with your magic?"
"That's none of your business!"
"Hey, hey, I'm asking nicely, you know! Well, never mind. Everyone has their secret after all. I'm gonna continue my training, are you also gonna continue your magic experiment?"
Ariel felt that there was something strange about Izumi. This was because he gave off the impression of a normal person with considerable physical strength. But what made him weird was that Ariel couldn't detect Izumi's status even though his status wasn't blocked.
She unleashed a powerful pressure on Izumi and asked.
"Tell me what are you and where are you from?"
Izumi clicked his tongue and at the same time, he released his Haoshoku Haki. Not only that, but he also unleashed his real strength and transformed into a Ghoul mode.
Ariel was astonished to feel the aura from Izumi that even affected her soul. Even if it was only for a moment, the fact that it could affect her soul meant that Izumi was no ordinary person. And when she saw Izumi transforming, she felt Izumi's strength increase drastically.
She saw Izumi's Kagune which she thought was Izumi's tail. At first, she thought it was a dragon tail which made it possible that Izumi was a descendant of a dragon. However, she saw that Izumi had the same four tails with an overall shape that was shrouded like dragon scales. It might look similar, but on the closer probe, it wasn't the dragon tail as she thought. With that, she concluded that Izumi was not a descendant of a dragon.
Indeed, with Izumi's transformation, Ariel was quite sure of her conclusion. Then, is Izumi a demon? His appearance certainly looked like that, but Ariel had never seen the type of demon race like Izumi. That was what Ariel had in mind after seeing Izumi's transformation.
"Not only are you disturbing my training, but you even want to attack me! Heh, such an unreasonable person exists here as well?"
Izumi sneered at Ariel with a slightly annoyed tone.
On the other hand, feeling that Izumi is not that easy to deal with, Ariel becomes wary of him. Then she asked,
"I disturbed your training?"
"That's right. I'm training around here. You have made such a big fuss, of course, I came here because of it it. Who's fault is it?"
Ariel didn't immediately answer. Since Ariel felt that what she was doing was too much, she felt a little guilty. She decided to retract her aura and asked again.
"You're not a human, not a dragon, and not that goddamn elf. You're like the demon race, but I've never seen a demon race like you. What exactly are you?"
Ariel felt that Izumi's strength had surpassed almost all creatures in this world, but she had never heard of Izumi before. Or it could be, Izumi is the same as Kumoko who suddenly appeared with such power because no one had noticed his presence before.
Meanwhile, as Izumi felt no pressure anymore, he heard Ariel's question and held his chin while thinking for a moment. Then said,
"Judging by your appearance, you are like a human, but you are not, aren't you?"
Izumi still didn't lower his guard against Ariel knowing how strong Ariel was. However, he still retracted his transformation.
Ariel didn't answer Izumi's question as if she had admitted that she wasn't human.
Instead of replying, Ariel asked Izumi back.
"How about you? I feel strange, this is the first time I've seen a human as strong as you."
When she asked that, Izumi was doubting himself. There was a moment of silence as Izumi pondered over and over. Until Izumi said,
"I'm human. Probably." Izumi said with an uncomfortable smile.
Ariel twitched her brow.
"What do you mean "probably"?"
"You know, you already saw my transformation. Do you think I'm still human?"
Even though Izumi said that just to give a bullshit excuse, he himself felt that he wasn't human anymore. Especially after he got Kagune from the reward which changed all the cells in his body.
"So, you were a human before that?"
"Well, if I presume I'm human, then I am." Izumi nodded in response. "And because of my transformation and my power, everyone feared me. So, I live in a place far from human settlements."
For some reason, hearing Izumi claim that he is human, but can turn into a monster, Ariel feels that Izumi is the same as her as an experimental being.
Ariel was born from the elven gene, which is none other than Potimas' gene combined with the spider gene codenamed Taratech more than a thousand years ago.
Her past was really dark where she was only used as a guinea pig every day. Until Sariel, the goddess who saved Ariel, arrived.
Due to her differences from other creatures, Ariel tends to be hated which makes her struggle to become stronger to silence them. And not long after that, because she possessed the "Taratech" gene, the Taratech born from her skill became a sacred beast in a certain country.
In that era, humans discovered planetary energy which led Sariel to issue an official opinion against its use, explaining that it is the vital energy of the planet. However, her warning is largely ignored due to the appeal of unlimited energy and longevity.
And the greed of mankind led to a great war in which Guliedistodiez led the dragons to attack humans and steal most of the energy from the planet.
Since the planet can only survive for a period of one year, Sariel who is known to have almost unlimited energy proposes to integrate with the system due to Potimas' suggestion. Sariel was willing to do that because of her love for the planet and all the creatures on it.
After that, Ariel who found out that her adoptive mother was being used by Potimas was really angry but also felt lost. Having no place to call "home" after Sariel's departure, Ariel went to the north where there were also many humans who mutated caused by the chaotic planetary energy they intended or accidentally consumed and were not accepted by humans. Which they are called, the demon race.
Given Ariel's past, the possibilities of what Izumi went through were more or less the same as back then.
"If you have no place to stay, come with me!" Ariel decided to offer him shelter.
Ariel felt it would be a shame if she missed this opportunity. She could see that Izumi's strength was quite useful when needed. But unexpectedly Izumi shook his head.
"Sorry, not now. I still want to perfect my technique first. If destiny says we will meet, it means we will definitely meet again in the near future."