Conqueror of Flames

The trio of Elen, Kabal, and Gido had begun their journey toward the Great Jura Forest, accompanied by the Champion, 'Conqueror of Flames'. However, to them, she was just an adventurer, Shizue Izawa.

At Shizue's request, Fuze hadn't informed them of her true identity. She preferred to be treated normally instead of like some royalty.

"Hey hey!! Shizue-san, can you tell us more about yourself??" asked Elen enthusiastically.

'Not much I can really tell you,' Shizue thought.

"There's nothing special about me, Elen-san. I'm just a regular adventurer." Shizue voiced.

Understanding that she didn't want to talk about her past, Elen let go of the issue.

"So how old are you, Shizue-san?" Kabal asked.

*BAM*

"You DUMBASS!! Don't you know that you shouldn't ask a woman her age?!!" Elen scolded him.

"I'm sorry about both of them, Shizue-san. Tell me if you get irritated, and I'll take care of them." Gido told Shizue, scratching his head, embarrassed by his companions' antics.

As such, the party continued on their way to Jura, arguing and playing with each other.

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"Gido!! You cover Elen, I'll distract it while Elen casts her magic." ordered Kabal.

"Don't tell me what to do! Gido, you protect Shizue-san. I can cast the magic on my own." responded Elen.

"HEY! I'm the party leader! At least listen to my instructions" Kabal complained.

The party had just encountered a horde of Giant Ants. Alone, these monsters weren't much of an issue, barely C+ rank, but they were truly fearsome in groups.

'I should quickly end this. No point in endangering the trio' thought Shizue. After making that decision, she drew her sword and advanced toward the nearest ant.

"Shizue-san, be careful!!" Gido yelled, as he prepared to engage the ant himself.

*WHOOSH*

Shizue's sword suddenly burst into flames as she readied herself.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of this." She said confidently.

'I say that, but in reality, I have to finish this fast before I lose myself.'

She then quickly dashed toward the ant, easily slicing through it's exoskeleton, engulfing it in flames.

Shizue didn't stop after the first, immediately attacking the rest, burning her way through their bodies. In just a few seconds, she had disposed of them.

"Whooah!! So cool!!" Elen expressed.

"Wait watch out!!" yelled Kabal from behind Shizue.

There was another ant, lurking behind the trees, who had sneaked behind Shizue.

'What?! Is this how it ends?'

"Pesky Insects" *BOOM*

A bright red flash blinded everyone as the ant exploded into a million pieces.

"Are you alright? Using a flashy attack was the fastest way of getting rid of that insect." A mysterious voice called out.

Gido, who was the first to recover, immediately questioned, "Who are you?"

"Calm down a bit, I just saved your lives." The voice replied.

In the next few seconds, the whole party had already recovered. The adaptability of adventurers was truly frightening.

The trio quickly prepared their weapons, fully alert of their surroundings. As the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, it revealed a person.

The person was dressed in black and purple garments.

"He's right. He just saved all of us, let's hear him out at least." Shizue commented.

Accepting Shizue advice, the trio lowered their weapons.

"Good choice. Now come with me, I'll take you to the village. You can rest up and recover." The person spoke.

"Hey! At least tell us your name!" Elen called out.

"You can call be Ashborne. Now follow me." Ashborne replied.

Going unnoticed by everyone, a look of recognition appeared on Shizue's face.

'So it is 𝘏𝘐𝘔!!'

--------------------------

I was pretty cool if I do say so myself.

After I obliterated the Giant Ant with a quick [Crimson Ichor] from my fingertip, I greeted the adventurers.

As expected, they were a bit hostile at first, but I convinced them to listen. Or rather Shizue did.

To be honest, I was very relieved to notice no visible changes in Shizue. Even [Great Sage]'s Analysis didn't report anything different from the information from the Unique Skill [Archiver]. This made me relax a lot, since I wouldn't have to prepare for anything beyond my knowledge.

Of course, that didn't mean I would let my guard down.

In just a minute of walking, we reached the decoy village built by the ogres.

"Welcome to our village. It's not much, but make yourselves comfortable." I told the group as we approached the gate.

Upon seeing us, Rigurdo came to us immediately.

"Welcome back, my Lord" He greeted. I had ordered him to treat me like a Lord in front of the adventurers.

"Are these the people you went to rescue, my Lord?" He further inquired.

"Yeah, thankfully none of them were severely harmed. Show them the makeshift tents and provide them with food and water." I said.

The trio and Shizue were still a bit confused.

"Uhhh, Hey can you tell us what's going on? What is this place?" Kabal asked, acting out of character.

"This is our village, and I'm it's Lord. I sensed you being attacked, and came to rescue you. And thankfully, I wasn't late."

I had decided to act as a simple but powerful village leader in front of them. It was my first encounter with humans, and I had thought hard about how I wanted to portray myself.

I expected that the upcoming days would change my decision on how I would portray myself, but I decided to wait.

"Oh you're the Lord??! Should we be addressing you with honorifics or something?" Kabal asked bluntly.

"I apologie in his stead, Ashborne-san. Thank you for saving us. We are deeply grateful." said Gido as he tilted his head in gratitude.

"There's no need for that. I'm happy to help. Though I have to warn you beforehand. You're free to leave if you're uncomfortable with this, but this is a village of monsters."

I dropped the bomb. Our future interactions would completely depend on their reaction to this information.

"Eh--? We know that already Ashborne-san. We don't care, since you saved our lives. Besides, the villagers aren't really monsters are they? Just demi-humans right? The Western Holy Church might classify them as monsters, but we know the difference. So you don't have to worry at all!" Elen responded.

Oh yeah, they have a secret too.

Almost nobody knows this, but Elen is a noble of the 'Sorcerous Dynasty of Sarion.'

Sarion is a gigantic superpower to the south of the Western Nations, and a kingdom of Elves. It is ruled over by the Heavenly Emperor, Elmesia El-Ru Sarion, an elf who claims to be a descendant of God.

Under Elmesia, there are 13 kingdoms, each completely loyal to Elmesia. The rulers of these kingdoms are assigned nobility titles and manage the various territories of Sarion. The Military however, is under the control of Elmesia alone.

The second strongest person in terms of authority in the empire, is Grand Duke Elalude {or Erald} Grimwald. He is also the head of the 'Magus', an extremely powerful secret military force appointed as Elmesia's personal guard.

Elen, is the daughter of Elalude, making her an extremely important figure in Sarion. Additionally, she is a close friend of Elmesia herself, having a very casual relationship with the empress.

Kabal and Gido are a part of this 'Magus' group.

Their powers are sealed, only to be unlocked when Elen is in mortal danger. That was the reason for the trio's peculiar behavior.

They basically were never in danger. They were strong enough to beat near Calamity-Class enemies when in mortal danger, and had the diplomatic immunity. They could do anything they wanted without consequences, apart from absolute absurdities like attacking a Demon Lord. Yet they chose to become adventurers, helping people and fighting monsters. It spoke a lot about their character.

I liked the trio quite a bit, and wanted a good relationship with them moving forward. Of course there were other reasons as well, such as their ties to Elmesia.

Sarion was an ally I would sacrifice an arm to get on my side, I would grow it back anyways.

There was also a third reason, which stemmed from my knowledge of the Original story.

Elen was the one who told Rimuru about the Resurrection Spell and gave him the idea to become a Demon Lord. That alone put her in my good books.

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"Here you go!" said Lilina, one of the Ogres in my Legion, as she brought some snacks for the trio and Shizue.

"Shizue-san, can I ask you a question?" I asked.

"Sure, go ahead" she replied politely.

"You're not a part of their party are you? Do you have any other business in Jura?" I asked.

"Shizue-san came along with us on this mission because the Guild Master told her too. I guess he thought that we wouldn't be enough for a mission to investigate the Storm Dragon's disappearance." stated Kabal casually.

"OII!! Dumbass, how can you reveal classified information so easily?!!" screamed Gido.

"No need to worry Gido-san, I won't tell anyone." I assured him.

*SIGH*

"You can drop the honorifics, Ashborne-san. And I've just given up now. These two idiots are just irredeemable." Gido said, exasperated at Elen and Kabal.

Shizue, who didn't even get a chance to speak, just observed all that was happening.

She couldn't reveal her true reason anyway, at least until she was alone with Ashborne in an isolated area.

"Hey Ashborne-san?? I didn't ask this until now for the sake of being polite, but why do you have a snake around your neck?" asked Elen.

Gido just slapped his forehead.

"Oh! This here is Coatl, he just sleeps most of the time, but he's my companion." I said.

"WHAT! He's named?!" exclaimed Kabal.

"Uhh yeah... He's named, but I don't wanna talk about it," I stated, trying to not reveal anything about me not being a human.

I had suppressed my aura to the point where no human could sense it. Powerful humans and people with skills could probably see through my disguise, but I was hidden for now.

"So you're here to investigate Veldora's disappearance right??" I asked, wanting to change the topic.

"That's right! It's almost been 4 months since the Storm Dragon is said to have disappeared, but we were sent on a mission to investigate the current situation." Elen explained.

"Well, I could help you if you'd like it." I offered.

"What do you mea--"

"Ashborne-san?? Can I talk to you for a moment please? Privately?" Shizue suddenly asked.

She looked calm on the outside, my her tone sounded urgent.

"Sure Shizue-san. Let's go outside." I said, as I got up to leave the makeshift house.

Shizue took the lead, and started walking away from the village. Her pace constantly increased as she seemed to be getting more and more imaptient.

'𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘰, 𝘉𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘳, 𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘰.' I ordered Rigurdo through Telepathy.

I was pretty sure of what was going to happen and mentally prepared myself.

Soon, we reached a clearing in the forest, a few kilometers away from the village. Shizue stopped walking and slowly turned towards me.

She removed her mask to reveal a gorgeous face, with scorch marks under her left eye.

Tears were pouring out of her other eye.

"I'm sorry for pushing this burden onto you Ashborne-san. But I just can't hold it in anymore, you're the only one I can trust."

"Wait Wait Wait, what do you mean?' I exclaimed. This was going differently than I had expected.

"Please don't let me hurt any more people that I love. I beg of you!'

With those words, Shizue said her goodbyes to this world. Her eyes changed as she was was suddenly engulfed in flames.

"NOOO!"

What was happening? Things are too different from canon.

But one thing is the same, defeating the enemy will solve the problem. Simple as that.

I regained my composure--

"Brace yourself Coatl, and watch your Lord in all his glory." I told Coatl, who was fully awake and alert now.

'[Great Sage], prepare for battle.'

I activated [Thought Acceleration] to the maximum, as the world slowed down around me.

The flame was constantly growing bigger and bigger. Shizue's body was nowhere to be seen anymore.

After a few seconds, the ball of flame suddenly stopped expanding, and started shrinking even faster.

*WHOOOOSH*

<Launching. Unique Skill [Degenerate]>

The flame disappeared completely to reveal a demonic looking being, with hair of flames and giant horns on it's forehead.

This was the Fire Giant Ifrit, a Greater Elemental of Flame. One of the most powerful Spirits that could be summoned by a person.

This was the reason for Shizue's moniker, 'Conquerer of Flames'.

She had bonded with Ifrit, and was constantly fighting it for control over her body.

She had lived a life of tragedy, one where she was forced to watch while people were killed by her own hands, while she was helpless.

It seems that she somehow already knew of my existence, and chose to let me defeat her, in order to kill Ifrit. She wanted to die as a 'human' instead of a 'majin'.

Very well, I would do it. Not only to satisfy her wishes, but also save her.

She was also an otherwolder, and just like Rimuru, I held sympathy for them.

In the end, all my problems would be solved by beating Ifrit in a fight. And that's what I'm gonna do.

I've prepared for this, and I know I can do it.

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*SCHWING*

I extended my bracelet into a blade as I readied myself for Ifrit's attack.

The Elemental slowly started rising up into the sky as it unleashed extreme amounts of heat, which easily burnt down nearby trees.

"[𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨]" it said in an unnatural voice. It sounded like a distorted version of Shizue's.

Five fireballs separated from its body, transforming into 'Salamanders'. They were winged lizard-like Medium Elementals of flame.

"Bring it on, you toasty piece of shit!!" I said, as I started charging towards Ifrit.

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A/N: Yay New chapter!

Shizue is here!!!!

Also, finally another fight. Hope this one turns out good.

Don't forget to drop some POWER STONES and REVIEW the story.