32 Meeting with Laplace.

"Nice to meet you too, Luminous. I feel I should warn you that Roy might be in danger. If you want you can send Shion to help. If they work together they can take care of him easily."

"What?!? Is this something Chornoa told you? How big is the threat? Should we head there?"

"No, the person is not a threat at the moment. It is a member of the moderate jesters, one of the persons who worked secretly with Clayman. Roy could have killed him easily if he took the fight seriously. Though if you prefer it we can talk in your castle after we deal with him " I answered calmly.

"Hmm… I trust in Roy, but if there is any risk of anyone entering the place I keep Chronoa sealed I would prefer we take care of it now. I have dealt with my fair share of cockroaches and know that if we are going to deal with them we have to make sure they die the first time. People don't always die when they are killed."

"Alright, I let Nyx know that I will be leaving for the moment so she won't worry. Let's go Shion, Luminous."

They arrived just in time to witness Valentine shooting out a crimson red ray of magicules.

"Die! Bloodray"

I could see Laplace sneaking behind Valentine using Universal sense with Raphael's help. He had left an illusion in front of Valentine to gain enough time to sneak attack him. Too bad we got here before he could.

Teleporting in front of Laplace I sent a punch straight to his face, launching him backwards and breaking him from his illusion. Surprisingly Laplace was able to block just in time. Now that I had stopped him from killing Roy I activated a barrier that would prevent anyone from teleporting out of here.

Giving Shion a nod she launched herself towards the flying Majin and tried to slash him but Laplace somehow maneuvered his body in the air to barely dodge the strike. Laplace might be the strongest of the Moderate Jesters, but in this scenario, he was completely outmatched.

'Debilitate'

Laplace suddenly felt as if his body weight had doubled. And even if he could see the next strike coming with his unique skill Future Vision he knew his body would not be able to keep up with his movement. Creating an illusionary version of himself with his unique skill Deceiver he attempted to confuse the Kijin that was launching another attack towards him.

"Did you forget whose kingdom you are in? Soul strike" Luminous spoke out angrily.

Laplace fell onto the ground weakly, had it been just one at a time he knew he could have escaped. But being surrounded by three demon lord existences at the same time, and with his teleportation blocked, he couldn't see a way to escape. If Clayman was dead it meant that even if he tried to escape using his astral body they had a way to stop him. The purple-haired Kijin's sword was approaching him and he closed his eyes and thought.

'Tear… Footman… Kazalim… I think I am not going to be able to come back. Not only did we lose Clayman today but I am going too. That fool, why didn't he listen to my warnings. I won't be able to see our dream come true but hopefully, you will be able to live in the world we wanted.'

But the strike he was expecting never arrived. Laplace tried to move but his whale body was stuck in place.

[Spatial lock successful. The targets have been trapped in their current locations.]

The sword Shion was swinging towards Laplace was stopped just on the brink of slicing him in half.

"Not yet." I said while walking towards him.

Once I was standing in front of him I reached out my palm towards his face and placed it.

[Activating Shared Mind and the skill Plunderer to Analyze memories.]

Raphael took in all the information for me and after a second she spoke.

[Suggestion. Take in the Moderate Jesters as subordinates. The main reason they are in an alliance with Yuuki is due to Kazalim following his command. They could be helpful with their connections to the organizations Yuuki has built. Now that demon lord Kazalim has been given a new body as Kagali she will be the one in control of the Adventurers Guild and of Cerberus after his death. From what I have analyzed their goals are just to live a happy life with their family.]

'What about Clayman? They probably will hold a grudge against me for killing him'

[That won't be a problem. Though they hold a lot of affection for him they could see that he was slowly separating from them and taking more drastic actions. In this world, if you attack someone you are not supposed to you are killed. They had warned him not to take action yet he insisted on attacking. They will be angry at you but that will only be temporary. In the worst-case scenario, I have already thought of a few solutions. Trust me.]

'Sage… I will'

I don't know what had made Raphael so talkative all of the sudden but if the professor insisted I should probably just believe her. Cerberus is one of the best intelligence gathering organizations and the guild is one of the most publicly respected organizations, it wouldn't hurt to add them to my side.

I used a strong sleeping gas from my particle breath skill to knock him out.

Opening a channel with the person I could trust the most to watch over Laplace I asked him.

<<Diablo, are you busy at the moment? I have something that you could help me out with.>>

<<Not at all Lord Rimuru, we are currently transporting the selected prisoners back to Falmuth. Helios is more than enough to look after them until the carriage arrives at the destination. Just give me the command and I will be wherever you need me.>> Diablo answered immediately.

<Great, in that case, meet me at the special cell we built. I have a very slippery person that I need you to watch over until I am free to go back. Make sure to treat him nicely, he is a potential ally.>>

Turning around I saw Luminous and Roy ready to kill Laplace but they were looking at my actions for the moment.

"Miss Luminous, I will have to take this person so I hope you don't mind me leaving for a second."

"... Do whatever you want." she still looked like she wanted to kill him but she gave me a small nod.

"In that case…"

I disappeared from this place to drop him off with Diablo and then arrived back to where I was standing just a few moments ago.

"Alright, now that we're done dealing with him how about we resume our conversation?"

…

During the talks, we had brought up different topics. We had decided to form an alliance with each other. I had let her know about what happened with Hinata and she gave herself a facepalm and said that she would talk about it with her. She would make sure that the paladins knew not to attack us and that we were now allies.

Since Shion was serving us some of the food I had brought, Luminous also found out about how good the food we had was and asked us to visit to see our city. She had also opened an invitation for us to come to visit and take a look around.

Luminous kept on talking about stuff from her past and since we had the common person we knew she talked about her stories with Chronoa. Since we didn't want to talk about business for too long we just talked about whatever came to mind for the time being.

By the time I got the message from Nyx that Walpurgis was about to end I knew it was time to call it a day for the moment. We said our goodbyes and left back to Tempest. It was a shame I didn't get to speak much with the other demon lords but there were always chances to do so in the future.

In the next few days to weeks, I would have to start the process of transfer of power in Jistav. While I was now the official ruler thanks to defeating Clayman it would take some time to get everything set up working properly and informing the citizens as to what had happened.

It was also time for me to pick up the kids and bring them to Tempest. And, with the new public announcement of my demon lord status, I was sure I would have to meet with the Sorcerer's Dynasty Sarion.

With the captured Laplace and the preparations for Operation Greed almost complete it would soon be time to take care of Yuuki. And after him, I would deal with the Russo's.

Now that I had the time to look at the newly gained skills while I waited for everyone to return from their conquest of Jistav I let Rapahel know to give me the information on the newly gained skills.

[Understood. From Clayman, you have obtained the skill Unique skill Puppeteer and the Intrinsic skill Astral Body

Puppeteer. This ability can convert information into encrypted communications as it conducts surveillance over a wide area. Deploying a member of his team to an area allowed them to function as his eyes and ears to gather intelligence.

Marionette Dance: This ability allows you to make dolls out of majins whose souls you stole. Marionette Dolls can immediately regenerate and continue to attack if destroyed. However, these dolls aren't protected against attacks to their souls.

And, Astral Body gave him the ability to move independently as a spiritual being. It also allows you to keep your consciousness and memories protected so even if you lose your physical body, you'll never truly die as long as your soul is still intact.

And from Laplace, we have copied the abilities.

Deceiver: A unique skill that combines illusory magic like Deception, Infiltration, and Concealment, which you can use to deceive your opponents' senses. It also has a "defense mechanism" that allows the detection of magic near you.

Future Vision: A Unique Skill that gives the power to foresee the future. With this ability, you can see the future several seconds ahead of time.]