Chapter 69: Chapter 65 - A Tragic Past and Future
In her original world, she had no relatives and lived alone with her mother. Her father was drafted, and she couldn't recall his face. Feeling neither blessed nor unfortunate, she had no choice but to accept it. She was injured during the Bombing of Tokyo during World War II. She was four at the time. Although she was summoned to this world during the bombing, it was not before she was badly burned. As she arrived, it was thus revealed that Demon Lord Leon Cromwell was responsible for summoning her. At first, he considered her existence a waste, a mere loss of a failed summoning attempt of Chloe Aubert. However, her sincere plea for help made him change his mind.
Leon reconsidered her value to him and then called forth the Flame Giant Ifrit. He then had Ifrit possess Shizu's body. In truth, he did this to prevent the collapse of her body under the rampaging magic from the summoning. Thus, this possession enabled her to stay alive from both her burn injuries and her unstable magicules from being summoned as a child.
As a Majin of flames newly named 'Shizu', she became an aide as well as a bodyguard for Leon. When the Hero Chronoa invaded, Leon fled, abandoning his castle. She was left as the rear guard, which Shizu thought to mean she was thrown away by the Demon Lord, but Leon actually hoped, based on the information he gathered, that the Hero would take Shizu along with them. After fighting the Hero for some time despite being outmatched, Shizu ran out of magicules and Ifrits will fell asleep allowing the Hero, who was actually Hinata in control of Hero Chronoa's body, to take her in and mentor her. To help control Ifrit's will, the Hero handed Shizu the Anti-Magic Mask.
However, the Hero left on a journey one day. Since then, Shizue went on to be an adventurer of her own and became a Champion known as the "Conqueror of Flames". Sometimes called one of the founders of the Free Guild, she had worked for the expansion and benefit of the Adventurer Cooperation Union. She also took part in training adventurers and her successors. At one time, she had taught two exceptionally excellent students, Yuuki Kagurazaka and Hinata Sakaguchi.
After the Adventurers Cooperation Union had formally changed its name to Free Guild, Yuuki introduced the current ranking system. As a result of it, casualties during subjugation missions greatly decreased. Shizue began supporting Yuuki behind the scenes. Due to no longer being able to contain Ifrit, she had to retire from being an adventurer and focused on being a teacher instead. Over time Shizu was even less able to contain Ifrit, thus, she decided to set off to find Leon one more time to find out the method with which Leon saved Shizu as a child so that she can apply the same method to save her 5 current students.
In the Kingdom of Blumund, via her connection to Franz, Blumund Guildmaster Fuze's father, it got arranged that she'd be traveling together with Kaval's Party into the Great Forest of Jura. During the trip Ifrit finally managed to take over her consciousness once more due to her weakened state, However, with the last of her Will, Shizu was able to separate herself and Ifrit entirely. Not wanting to live with Ifrit in control of her body and letting her die as a "Human" instead of a "Majin".
After Rimuru defeated Ifrit, Shizu's consciousness returned for a short time. Her last request, as a now frail and white haired woman, was for Rimuru to put her to rest within himself, to make Demon Lord Leon Cromwell acknowledge her existence, and to save the children.
Erix vividly recalled the story of Shizue and how it was supposed to end. A tragic end for someone who is affected by the flow of life. Though, he does desire to conquer and expand his land but does not aim for innocent to be affected by it if possible. It would be petty and shameless to aim at the weak. He hoped that he would be able to save and protect her.
'I wonder if I'm being too soft.' He thought to himself as quite hypocritical when he was sympathetic to Shizue yet would destroy an entire country when needed without being fazed.
[ Nay, it is not softness and simply that the character thee madeth is but assimilating to thy former self making it that thou art more mature and less egocentric. ] Arryn reassured seeing that Erix wasn't troubled, rather simple thought. In the end, Erix was selfish and cruel when he needed to be.
{ Yeah, and it's better to be hypocrite than self righteous. } Amaia finds it annoying to people who believe that they can save everything without killing and push their ideals to other people.
'True, but I do have great respect for a hero. Like batman.' Erix does not like Batman as a whole but his ideas and principles are worth respecting. He only dislikes how he pushes his belief to ours.
"We're close." Erix spread his senses and found four individuals. One was a young man with medium length hair, seemingly in his prime and another young man that had a tall and strong build and a rectangular head. His brown hair is cut short and he has a goatee. His cheeks have distinct depressions.
The most interesting are the two women, not because Erix always lust for more women because of his lore and nature but rather their Magicule permeating from them. One was a young woman of fair stature with blonde hair and green eyes. She has special markings under her eyes and wears a blue tie-on headband. Her attire consists of clothes fit for travel as an adventurer.
Another was a young woman of average height with black eyes and black hair, as well as red burn scars under one of her eyes. She wore a mask with intricate design and didn't have any holes to see through.
They were Kaval, Gido, Eren or Elyun Grimwald, cousins of Sorcerer's Sarion Dynasty Empress and their temporary member, Shizue Izawa.
He watches them running away from a few dozen Giant Ants when Shizue turns around and begins to use fire-magic to destroy them all in seconds. Just as she thinks it's over, one of the Ants that pretended to be a dead sneak attacks her. Shizue drops into her stance and just as she is about to strike, she flinches and cries out in anguish.
"Guahhh!" She says as she falls to her knees having her control of ifrit going rogue once again. The Giant Ant looming over her expecting for the worse until something flew in high speed and pierce through the head of the giant ant.
They saw a pristine crimson spear that hovered in the air before it flew at high speed and turned to find a young man with scarlet red hair riding an enormous wolf. The group tense up seeing them approached.
"W-Who are you?" Kaval asked, sensing a pressure coming off him that was not the Magical rather his survival instinct kicking in.
"Are you three alright?" Erix didn't answer and unmounted Ragna seeing that they were rather tenses even Shizu was clearly in shock.
"Y-Yes, we're fine, thank you for helping us and saving Shizu." Eren composed herself and showed her gratitude while her heart was stirring inside. She was smitten by his regal and majestic face especially drawn by something that she wasn't unsure off.
Erix knew that his [ Yggdrasil Tree ] within him was affecting her elven lineage like the Dryad and Treant who are currently taking care of its physical manifestation at the capital of the Nazarick city. Frankly at the alarming rate of the town being built it was close to a small to medium size country at the moment. With the help of restless undead and a robust body of High Orcs and Orc lords made it easy to build many structures especially with unique and high quality materials.
He does have some interest in Eren, especially her relationship with the Sorcerer's Sarion Dynasty and would be best to have a close relationship. Erix would find it to be a great opportunity if he engages with Eren and the current empress that would give birth to a powerful lineage.
Though, he can't deny their personalities and beauty was the major reason he was aiming for them like how clumsy and cute. While her cousin, the empress was the same but has experience in politics which would be vital in helping his kingdom grow. He doubts she would betray him when both would have the interest of their country. Not to mention once a contract is established then he has full control over the other party.
He does hope that after plundering the skill that Shizu has, he would gain a few more ultimate skills if possible. Erix hoped to gain [ Lord of Harvest, Shub-niggurath ] from helping Shizu. If not then he'll use a few more world items from his storage to create what he wants.
"It was nothing, like an old friend used to say, Saving someone who is in trouble is common sense." Erix went closer while grabbing the mask on the ground and the moment he did something triggered.
[ Unknown force detected ]
[ You have acquired "Lord of Creators, Elohim" ]
[ You have acquired "Lord of Victor, Nike" ]
Erix was able to see through the time stream and saw a glimpse of several parallel timelines and time loops that the mask went through as he understood the one who made the loop was himself and witnessed the Tenma War where he was barely alive standing on top of a mutilated creature with countless lives lost.
He saw Amaia and Arryn broken while he's barely conscious and had the owner of the mask, Chloe sent back to the time stream protecting her from their enemy fearing that she might be followed. Erix wondered who was their enemy until he was pulled back and saw that not even a split second had passed.
'Amaia, Arryn, did you see it?' Erix wasn't afraid and was calm knowing this might be the end of a loop considering he gave his most powerful skills back. He wondered if that timeline never got the Chat group therefore never gained [ Lord of Rebirth, Phoenix ].
[ Yes, Master. It appears to have come from another timeline where thee never got the chat group and was a lot weaker. ] Arryn was slightly annoyed at the outcome of the possible future.
{ Relax, sister, Master wouldn't face that future anymore thanks to the new skills. } Amaia pondered about that future.
'Whatever, that future isn't me. How about showing me what the skill can do.'
[ Lord of Victory, Nike ]
[ Future Manipulation ] : They manipulate the future, allowing them to change the outcome of any event or the fate of any person or object at will. They can achieve basically anything they desire due to the limitless potential of the future, like causing even the most unlikely of scenarios to take place or changing the properties of anything in the future. In battle, this would make users practically invincible, as anything their opponent does can be controlled by the user, making defeat impossible.
[ Omni-precognition ]: Users can perceive all possible futures, either one at a time, or all at once. They can use this ability to always arrive at their intended outcome and/or gain immeasurable knowledge by studying the infinite number of futures and timelines that lie ahead of them. ]
[ Lord of Creators, Elohim ]
[ Creatio Ex Nihilo]: Allows the user the ability to create anything they can conceivably think of from skills, magics, items, souls, living beings, and even whole worlds so long as they have the magical power to do so. ]
[ Skill Creation ]: Allows the user to create brand new skills based on the Data obtained from Analysis and Food Chain.
[Skill Duplication ]: Allows the user to recreate skills that they have a full analysis of.
[ Skill Gifting ] : Allows the user to grant skills to a target, assuming they're compatible.
[Skill Storage ]: Stores the Data of all analyzed skills so they can be recreated later. ]
Erix was amazed by the skills he got and didn't need to worry about having [ Lord of Harvest, Shub-niggurath ] when he already had the new skills. Though, he pondered how his alternative self acquired it and if he had to sacrifice a lot to give it away.
[ Master, I believe, thee alternative self sacrifices all magicules and skills along with the soul of everyone in there to send this skill for thee. ] Arryn commented, sharing her thoughts.
{ He likely uses [ Lord of Dark Magic, Mephistopheles ] and it's [ Contract ] Sub-skill that he exchange an equal value for him to make the skills and send it back. } Amaia added while Erix recalled the Essence of a Merchant in CYOA Essence pack that he once read and this skill acted the same way.
'I see, whatever my enemy in that timeline is likely to come here sooner or later but I have a lot of time to prepare. Considering it's not yet here then it best not to worry and focus on the present.' Erix thought while he return back to his normal perception and walked up to Shizu handing over the mask.
"Here. I wonder why you need a mask to hide your beautiful face?" Erix flirted that made Shizue smile and filled her heart with warmth that she had long forgotten.
"Thank you." Shizu said with a smile looking at Erix as if she knew him for a long time. He smirked and heard Ragna.
"Master, what should we do with them?" Everyone was surprised to hear him speak.
"You can speak!?" Erene said never expected to see a wolf talking to them.
"We will bring them to the capital. Also, good work." Erix patted its soft and fluffy fur making Ragna happy and Eren wanted to pet him.
"Sooo cute! C-Can I pet him?" Eren couldn't resist the temptation and saw Erix nodded.
"Wow, it's sooo soft!" Eren continued to rub her hands against his fur and after a few minutes took the group back to the capital.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone