Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Subordinates
The unnamed Insectar lunged towards Velgin, intent on showing her how powerful he was...
… which wasn't that powerful apparently, since to Velgin, it looked as if he was moving slower than an insect's crawling speed.
'Hmm. How do I convince him to follow me?' She thought. 'Even if I beat him, he would probably still only be loyal to Zelanus, since he's currently the stronger of the two of us,'
Then, a brilliant idea came to her. She would replace much of his body with her own cells, as well as name him. This would hopefully create a soul corridor, giving Velgin the ability to prevent betrayal, as well as boost his powers, convincing him that she is his best option to get stronger.
'But how would I replace his cells? When Rimuru did it to Zegion, he was already seriously injured and missing limbs. But the grandson here is in perfect health. Should I just rip off a few of his limbs and exoskeleton?' She thought. 'Also, once he agrees to be my subordinate, how should I train him? Should I continuously beat him, or train him in a martial art, or just let him absorb my magicules?'
Running multiple simulations on what the optimal percent of body replacement was and how to train him, after what felt like multiple days, the unnamed Insectar finally reached her, but Velgin had quickly scooted out of his trajectory and continued to run simulations.
She could have fought him at the same time, but Velgin wanted to highlight how much more powerful she was than him.
"Ha! You're so weak that you could only barely dodge my warm up attack!" The grandson boasted.
Velgin, greatly annoyed from how oblivious he could be, finished the battle with her next move, kicking down with her left foot and instantly crushing every part of the insectar's body.
"Gah! It hurts!" He screamed, somehow staying awake through all the pain he must have been feeling. "But I won't give up!"
Unfortunately, he was too injured to continue fighting, be he still tried to ram Velgin with his horns.
This time, Velgin didn't even need to dodge, as he collapsed right in front of her. But instead of staying down, he got right back up and continued his attack, lightly bumping into her legs.
Impressed with his determination, Velgin picked up the dog sized Insectar, stroking his back while saying, "You're not bad, but you need the right nurturing before truly becoming strong. If you want true strength, then agree to be m subordinate."
Velgin's abilities to help her subordinates, like using [Food Chain] and [System Chain], all needed the other person to verbally agree or agree through a contract to be her subordinate. That's why buried in the citizenship papers for her country, she imputed a sneaky clause stating they would be. This wasn't for her current citizens though, as they all gladly accepted her. Instead, this would be for when she builds a human city, since they wouldn't want to submit to a demon lord.
She had plans to hide this clause in papers for various small western nations, but hadn't had time to implement it yet.
"I … Agree," the unnamed Insectar was barely able to say two words before he collapsed from exhaustion. But these two words were enough for her, as Velgin smiled.
"Good. Then from this day forth, you shall be Zeldris, my strongest hidden weapon."
As she said this, Zeldris glowed with the mystic white light of evolution, evolving but staying in his beetle form. While he was evolving, Velgin stored him in her [Inventory], manipulating every part of the evolution to be beneficial to her.
She had [Raphael] replace his entire exoskeleton with her cells, as well as the tips of each of his limbs. This was to increase the density of his shell and other cells, as well as hopefully increase his physical abilities once Zeldris becomes a humanoid Insectar. Adding her cells to each of his limbs would have the added effect of making his hands stronger than daggers later on, when he transforms into his humanoid form.
Inside her storage, [Raphael] was monitoring Zeldris's evolution, increasing his powers from C+ rank to A- rank, and that was without entering a humanoid form. Once he did transform, he would be Velgin's strongest warrior.
Finishing with all her business in the Otherworld, Velgin went to say goodbye to Zelanus.
"I probably won't ever come here again, so this will probably be the last time I see you." Velgin said as she was preparing to depart.
"Likewise." Zelanus said simply while nodding his head.
Starting to walk away, Velgin said as her parting words, "By the way, I know that you hate Feldway and wouldn't ever work with him. But in the future, if he goes mad and wants to concur the main world, don't join him."
This greatly confused Zelanus, as he would join Feldway, much less work with him. But he stored this knowledge in the back of his mind, heading back inside the Insectar nest.
Little did the both of them know, this one line would greatly impact their future choices.
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Finding her way back to the gate to the Otherworld, Velgin looked around one last time.
Her time in the Otherworld was brief, but it definitely wasn't boring. Spending time in a void like world for over a month was disorienting, so she would be glad to stand on the stationary Earth once more.
Facing the lightning shaped rip in space that lead back to the Demon Realm, Velgin was just about to enter when when she felt a curious presence behind her.
"Hmm, who's there? Did Zelanus send you to give a message?" She asked lazily, putting her hands behind her head in a relaxing posture.
But just as she was about to turn around, the small nearly insignificant presense instantly grew, into a large, cruel, bloodthirsty, and evil presense.
"FREE ME!" The being said in a low growl.
Hearing the voice made Velgin shiver, and it didn't take much for her to figure out who this being was.
Even with her Ultimate Skills, she couldn't feel the bottom of this beings energy. And plus, the Otherworld was only a prison for 1 beast, so that narrowed her options to basically just a few people.
"FREE ME!!!" It yelled again, its energy starting to stir, making the air get heavy around Velgin.
But before it could do anything else, Velgin leaped into the gate, exiting the Otherworld and the only space that the beast could effect.
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Making it back to the Demon World, Velgin was brought to a sight of Noir's fist going through ghost looking Cryptid.
The Cryptid quickly died, dissolving in the air,
Feeling that someone else had exited the portal, Noir turned, saw Velgin, and smiled.
"Welcome back! I'm surprised, I thought it would take you longer in there." He said, laughing to himself, "You were only gone about 20 years."
Rotating her head 90 degrees, Velgin asked, "Wait, 20 years!!! But my internal clock said it was only 1 month!?"
The process of going through the portal and back had taken about 10 years each way, but the time spent wondering the Otherworld was constant with the main world.
Velgin would have known this if she asked earlier, but had to experience it to find out.
"If its really been that long, then I need to go home and see how everyone is doing." Velgin said before using [Spatial Motion] to teleport to a different gate that lead to the Main World.
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Finally returning to the Main World, Velgin flew at a slow speed towards her home. She was excited to finally relax again, but wanted to finish up with all her projects having to do with the Otherworld.
While maintaining her altitude, Velgin took out the three Cryptid eggs, examining them.
Even by using analysis, Velgin was unable to see what creature was inside. But it wasn't because the shell was disturbing her analysis.
Instead, the reason she couldn't analyze it was because the entire egg as well as what was inside was only Magicules in physical form.
Using [Sherlock] Velgin discovered that even by letting the Monster Eggs absorb her Magicules for years, they wouldn't hatch for a long time. Not wanting to be patient, instead of waiting, she decided to name the three of them.
Starting with the largest egg, Velgin said, "You, little one, shall be called Kaede."
As she named the first Egg, for some reason, all three eggs glowed.
Confused on what was happening, Velgin used [Sherlock] to analyze what was happening, only to learn that an evolution was happening that somehow connected all three eggs. She only named one egg, but all three were evolving. Was this something like how Ranga was connected to his entire pack?
Just then, The two unnamed eggs started dissolving into a shining dust, their energy going towards the named egg.
Velgin, seeing that this was a delicate process, let go off all the eggs and used her skills to levitate the eggs. She also stopped flying for a little bit, letting whatever process the eggs were going through happen.
About an hour later, the 3 eggs merged into one, and the monster hatched soon after.
The originally soulless monster gained a soul bounded to Velgin once it was born. A small baby cat, smaller than her hand, with 3 tails and surrounded by a lot of nature attributed energy was born, and had a soul corridor with Velgin.
Smiling, she put away the little sleeping cat in her [Inventory] to let it rest, and continued flying towards home.
Entering at a high altitude in the airspace of the Dragon Kingdom, Velgin was impressed by 3 different things.
First, there were several Wyverns and Lesser Dragons patrolling the sky's above the entire kingdom. They weren't there when she left, so that meant they must have made lots of progress throughout the 20 years.
Secondly, the trees that Velgin had planted when she claimed these lands had shot up, creating an actual forest of tall trees that may allow her to plant her own World Tree later on.
And lastly, there was a second city that was actually a city. Not including the Ogre village or the Capital of the Dragon Kingdom, a city was somehow founded within 20 years and had grown to resemble a large city of almost 1 million humans, though most of them happened to be children in their teenage years.
Velgin was going to send a telepathic message towards Emilia, but before she could, [Raphael] sent her a telepathic message.
{Received. According to knowledge gathered by subordinates, this settlement was founded by humans and watched over by Emilia. The recommended course of action is to enter and take command.}
Thinking nothing of it, Velgin agreed, and had [Raphael] tell Emilia to send a letter saying that she would inspect the city in an hour.
After that hour of discreetly looking around, she found many things, including the front gate that led into the tall city walls, as well as a group of knights near the front.
Seeing that they all were wearing the emblems of the Dragon Kingdom, Velgin revealed herself and approached from the above, landing nearby and waving at the approaching guards.
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Extra Authors Notes:
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
If you did, please give me a comment and add the story to your collection.
I'm going to try my best to read and reply to comments so if you have question, feel free to ask things.
I'm starting a new arc, and want to include more fighting rather than story and character development, so I hope its interesting.
If anyone has any suggestions for how I can improve my writing, I would love some advice.
Also, I'm thinking of writing a new fanfic along with this one, and may shorten the length of the chapters so I have time to write the other one.
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TowerOfFlowers
TowerOfFlowers Hi Everyone
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