Chapter 7 -> Ramiris, The Spirit Queen and The Summoning

<< Notice. Good job. >> -> [Wisdom King: Raphael]

<|< REDACTED >|> "Voice of the World".

<<< Hello master! How can I help you? >>> -> [Voice of Wisdom: Sophie]

' What?! ' -> used to symbolise thinking (used in convoluted sentences to help in understanding)

" Hello! " -> Speech.

* moments prior* -> Narrative use

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Now, let's get this over with.

I focus on Ramiris who had her back turned to me and is seemingly fluttering like she's lost 99% of her brain cells, talking to demon Beretta.

Beretta, finally noticing me, gets tense for a brief moment, then relaxes and tries to interrupt Ramiris by informing her of my presence.

Ramiris, finally getting still for a moment, hears Beretta , and looks back.

Upon seeing me out of the blue, she just… fainted.

Surprised, yes, but I react and pick her up with one hand before she has an intimate moment with Earth.

Why would she faint?

Beretta, who is much much much slower than me to react, yelped and was most likely about to do the same action, but notices me holding Ramiris, widens her eyes considerably, practically brimming with surprise.

Observing the yellow fairy, I noticed a faint pink hue on her cheeks which is most likely indicative of being intoxicated, so I decided to solve that issue.

"Cleanse.", I speak with a clear voice.

A golden aura surrounds Ramiris as the [Purity Manipulation] ability of the ultimate skill [Judgment King: Nemesis] cleans all impurities from the pixie, removing the pink hue and seemingly making her glitter even more.

The golden aura recedes, and Ramiris slowly but surely opens her eyes.

This time she did not faint but started to panic, shouting words at unreasonable speeds:

"Where am I? Why am I here? Where is Beretta? Where is Rimuru? Why are you here?"

"Outside your Labyrinth. You just woke up after fainting. Next to you. At Tempest. Because we agreed on so", I responded one by one, not surprised by her antics.

"Oh! I got drunk again, didn't I?", says the pixie who is now sheepishly scratching her cheek, somehow embarrassed by the situation.

"Correct. You fainted upon seeing me. Seeing your ailment, I've cleansed it.", I reply.

"Eeeeeh…. sorry… wait.. no! You scared me! Can you atleast give a warning first?!!!", starts off apologetically then turns into clear irritation as she huffs and puffs, looking like a chipmunk.

"Hm. I will take that into consideration. Regardless, I wish to meet these "advanced spirits" you speak of, fairy.", I continue.

"Riight, riight. Let's go in!", retorts Ramiris, rolling her eyes sideways.

————————————

I stepped inside. What I saw was in fact not a typical representation of a labyrinth but more of a corridor that was certainly packed with traps designed to throw your sense of direction to the gutter. A human would immediately get lost, and most likely never get out.

I followed the pathway of light with Ramiris and Beretta.

Suddenly, voices echoed in my mind.

(oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...)

(Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

A weak form of telepathy?

I see.

Tiny bubbles with a myriad of colors all around the place, apparently playing around.

Elementals. Sub-type of spirits.

"So Jiren! What was that move you did in Walpurgis?", asked Ramiris curiously with Beretta opening her non-existent ears to listen in.

"Karmic Retribution. Deals damage to the soul/spirit of a person based on their LV value."

"Uhhh-huuum. You said this LV thingy is the willingness of a person to do harm to others. Ah! I understand! So that is your Authority!", thinks Ramiris for a bit (shocking!), then proceeds to blurt out her conclusion.

I nod.

"That is fine! I am Ramiris of the Labyrinth. Well... You know that I'm a demon lord, but I'm also a guide for the holy. I am a fairy resident of this labyrinth, and I am also the Spirit Queen, although in my weakened state. My job is to instill the protection of the spirits into Heroes!

Because I - yes, I - am the one who maintains the balance in this world!!!!"

The other elementals flitted happily around in the air. Blessed light filled the chamber.

"I see. I am Jiren the Gray. The one who brings forth order in the world, possessing the authority of judgment.", I ignore the sparkling lights and supposed "dignity", and respond in kind.

"Wow! So you can assist me in my job! You know what, I'd be happy to hire you as my apprentice!", announces Ramiris with expectation in her eyes.

"There is no need for such a hierarchy to be formed.", I retort.

"Why?!" she grumped "What's the big deal? Why won't cha just say yes?"

I stare at her blankly, allowing her to reach her own conclusion.

"Hmph. Fine! I don't need you anyway!", she pouts and says as she punches the air multiple times as fast she can muster. Beretta just sighed in the background.

————————————

I sensed a teleportation circle in the pathway which we proceeded to walk into. We appeared near a huge door that opened upon arrival.

On the other side of the door was a large, seemingly empty chamber. This was the Oracle Chamber, connected directly to the Dwelling itself. A corridor of light extended from it, about three feet wide and sixty or so feet long. At the far end of this was a round platform, around fifteen feet in diameter.

"Alright, listen big guy - I want you to go up on that platform and call for the elementals!", informs Ramiris cheerfully.

I nod and teleport immediately to the top, promptly making Ramiris mutter "don't we have mechanisms against spatial movement?" Beretta giving a verbal nod of confirmation.

I cross my arms, close my eyes and put forth a certain part of my will.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!", shouts Ramiris, from a distance flying closer.

I sense multiple higher spirits - particularly the 4 elements. Fire, Earth, Wind, Water.

"Hmmm. You…", I put forth my analysis, "are pitifully weak."

The 4 elementals and Ramiris had their jaws drop. Weren't the spirits one who tested the person and not the other way around?!

"What did you say?!" Fire.

"Ooh…" Wind.

" *sob* Water

" … " Earth

New lower elementals appeared, but no new higher level ones.

I see.

I am underestimating your resolve, and if that is the case… then…

I encase Ramiris and Beretta in a barrier, and unleash a higher portion of my aura.

The entire area started shaking like there was an earthquake, the air immediately surrendering upon contact, the lake nearby churning and reality-rending wind waves propping out of my visage.

Fair to say, two very bright and distinct signatures appeared. I stopped.

————————————

On one side, light began raining down on the platform forming a silhouette of a being with a marginally higher power signature than the previous 4 elementals, giving off a "warm" atmosphere.

On the other side, darkness started creeping upwards from the ground forming a silhouette of a being comparable to the one on the left, however giving off a "cold" atmosphere.

The two signatures finally formed into two boys of distinct colors - one comprised of lighter colors and white and the other one comprised of darker colors and black.

I observe as the boys open their eyes and gaze upon me.

"Hello there!", says the blonde-looking one at first, but noticing his counterpart he widens his eyes and points his finger at him, "Why are you here?!"

"What do you think, dumbass?! I'm here for this guy! Did you think I came here to meet you?!", angrily retorts the black-haired boy with scowling features.

"No! You can't have him, he's mine!", responds the blonde spirit with similar vigor.

"Eeeeeh. Again with the Light elemental?! There's the Dark one too!!!", pouts Ramiris in the background, peeved by the turn of events so far, even if she half-expected it.

————————————

"Light. Dark. Interesting.", cuts a voice sharply through the argument and whining, making everyone pay attention to him.

"Ramiris, while the light show is mildly entertaining, I fail to see how these "higher ranked elementals" may be of benefit whatsoever. ", states Jiren with an unwavering tone.

"But they can give you access to their respective elements and also create a Hero's Egg! You can turn into a True Hero if you hatch that egg and evolve!", replies Ramiris with conviction.

Jiren pauses for a moment, not really convinced by the argument considering he can blow up a star or two by sneezing, but gazes upon the elementals again with a scrutinizing stare and finally responds:

"Considering your arrogance just now, I assume you possess the necessary conviction to pass through tribulation?"

6 voices of confirmation echoed.

"Bring it.", states Jiren as multiple barriers form around him.

The four spirits of the 4 elements were the first to act and rushed towards Jiren. The fire spirit being in front, grinning at the prospect, was the first one to experience a solid surface akin to concrete for a regular human being, almost knocking himself out, followed by the 3 who received the same treatment. Constant attempts only yielded to the fire elemental budging the barrier by negligible amounts.

"Hmph, plebeians. Just you watch, darkie, he's mine!", says the light elemental as he rushes into the barrier headfirst, immediately slamming into it like a bird onto a window.

"Hahahahaha! You can't even do that!", laughs the dark elemental as he attempts the same thing, and "shockingly" slams into it as well.

They both start rubbing their head, turn serious and try harder, only to repeatedly hit the barrier.

"Ouch ouch ouch, didn't you make this too hard?!", whines the light elemental.

"Shut up, I will do it!!!!", roars the darkness elemental as she musters all her might aaaaand… disappears upon contact, however budging the barrier by a fraction of a centimeter.

"Did you just make a greater elemental disappear by itself with your barrier?!!!", shouts Ramiris who started erratically flying around.

"Hmph." was the only answer she got.

Other elementals tried to break the barrier repeatedly, but the final result was the same - they disappeared.

Ramiris is just frankly speechless at this point.

"How disappoin…", started Jiren to say, turning his back to the pedestal before suddenly, a palpable pressure arrived that was very comparable in both strength and nature to Jiren's previously released aura, but not entirely the same. Those who possess notable strength in the world felt something change.

Jiren, raising his non-existent eyebrows, rotates back to his prior position and sees four new elementals. They were much more humanoid than the previous ones, and two of them had an aura comparable to some of the Demon Lords. The ones in the middle.. however…

"Hello!" echoed two times.

"..."

"..."

"Ummm… Those two are… Earth and Air Spirit Lords respectively… Oi they are not cabbage on the street you can just summon!", whines Ramiris in confusion and irritation before paying attention to the ones in the middle only to get shocked, opening her mouth like a fish.

The two spirit lords didn't need persuasion, nor a challenge before they blitzed way faster than their previous counterparts towards Jiren, who was observing the emotionless spirits that stayed still in the back.

The first barrier was immediately broken, no surprise whatsoever by the side of Jiren who was still paying attention to the ones in the back, not caring about the current two.

The second barrier proved to be much harder to breach, regardless of energy invested by the spirit lords, clearly of a different nature that was testing something different from the energy department.

They pushed the barrier to its absolute limit and were about to succeed when the barrier suddenly reset, making the spirits have a comical vein popping moment.

Spirits, as pure as they are, didn't take that as a big setback and started again.

It happened again.

And again.

And again.

But at last when they were about to dissipate, the barrier cracked.

One remaining. This one was special, it wasn't red like the other two were, it was pure golden, alluding to its particular nature.

The two spirits were attracted to that particular aura, which included Ramiris in the back who was curiously looking at it.

The final rush was there, but the result was quite disheartening.

Upon contact by the two Elemental Lords, the barrier immediately turned red, prompting Jiren to characteristically state "Get lost.", immediately disintegrating them with eyes alone.

Jiren, in the first place had trouble tolerating the fact that he's borrowing power that is not his, but now that he confirmed the two elementals' massive possibility of being corrupted by his immense aura, that hassle was simply not worth it.

He observes the remaining two with a yellow glare courtesy of Judgment Eye, judges for a moment then proceeds to lift his hand and the two remaining spirits instantaneously appear near him. "Ramiris, these two are sufficient."

Ramiris, snapping out of her pondering, now serious, responds:

"Hold it. Before you do so, I wish to ask about your true intentions in this world?"

This was no longer the ditsy fairy, this was the Spirit Queen on full display, the one who keeps the balance, the second in authority only to Veldanava. The Administrator, Ramiris.

"Observation and judgment, fairy. My existence entails that the world I am in contains an issue that leads to its unnatural erasure, a bug if you will, one that must be corrected.", answers Jiren.

"WHAT? How do I not know about this…?", asks Ramiris shocked.

"A question I can not answer currently. It could range from your current form to you not possessing the power in the first place.", replies Jiren whose eyes now briefly contained infinite 0's and 1's, courtesy of Sophie analyzing the phenomenon.

"Regardless, that is a mere duty that will be solved with due time.", continues Jiren who now for some reason scowls before finishing, "I intend to to further understand this concept of "trust" in the meantime."

Ramiris immediately fell out of her serious mode only to stare at the brickhouse of a man. The mere number of how many times he made her make her jaws drop this evening is uncountable. There are many activities one may partake in, and honestly hers alone are thought to be weird to her demon lord friends, but learning what trust is…?

She just started sweetly chuckling, now having intense curiosity and motivation on the first non-robotic statement she got out of him.

The response to her chuckling was the air straight up disintegrating due to heat emanating from Jiren, before Ramiris realized and started panicking. "Wait, wait, wait! I am sorry! I didn't mean it like that!" It stopped, however the sharp and non-budging gaze was still staring at her small frame.

"I just got surprised, that's all! I didn't expect it! But I can help you!!!", she says as she starts glittering around.

"How so?"

"I will be your friend! And I will make you trust me! No matter how long it takes!", she announces with a loud voice that sent Jiren on a memory lane.

————————————

*flashback*

"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐄𝐄𝐄𝐄𝐍?

𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐓?

𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐍𝐃?

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐔𝐔𝐔𝐔𝐔𝐔𝐔𝐏!!!!!!!!! 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐎𝐍!!!!", screams Toppo from the stands.

"What an obnoxiously loud friend you have", mocks the lizard humanoid.

"No... I don't have friends..", I respond weakly.

"𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐇, 𝐑𝐄𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑?!!!

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄, 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃!

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋.

𝐉𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧.

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐒𝐓!

𝐍𝐎 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔!

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓!!!"

"Oh please.... It's going to make me puke…", states Frieza.

"𝙃𝙍𝙍𝙂𝙂𝙂𝙂𝙂𝙂𝙃𝙃𝙃. 𝙄𝙏'𝙎 𝙀𝙉𝙊𝙊𝙊𝙊𝙊𝙊𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃!", I roar as I destroy everything around me.

————————————

"Jiren. We thank you.", says Toppo with sadness in his voice.

"You.. thank.. me? I ignored you this entire tournament... My ambitions were my only goal…"

————————————

I give a slight smile.

Ramiris for some reason immediately lost control of her flight and had her eyes pop out of her skull.

Confusion fills me as I am unaware of what caused such a momentary loss of control…

"Ha..Ha..Ha. Riiiight. Riiight. Anyway! Back on point! YOU SUMMONED TWO LITERAL AVATARS OF THE GRAND ELEMENTALS, DO YOU KNOW HOW IMPRESSIVE THAT IS?!?!!!!?!?!?!", screams Ramiris now totally out of it.

"Grand elementals?", I replied bewildered as my prior memory had only "elemental lords" at the top. Sophie, what are these grand elementals?

<<<Grand elementals are spirits from whom all other elemental spirits and world elements originate. They are egoless masses of power that have been around since the dawn of creation. In particular, Veldanava utilized the Light and Dark Great Elementals to derive the Angels and Daemons respectively. >>>

"Yes! Grand Elementals! They are the highest elemental spirits that exist just below me! How did you even summon them, that should be impossible?!", chaotically asks Ramiris.

<<<Multiple possibilities have been found.

Extreme affinity with the attributes of Fire & Light.

Overachieving the requirements of willpower.

Voice of the World interference. >>>

"It appears I possess quite strong affinity for these two elements.", I respond.

"But.. That's not… Eeeeh. Screw it. That hurts my head, you do your impossible things!!", says Ramiris, giving up.

I nod.

Sophie, assimilate. Full control of its capabilities, remove all possible control circuits and backend switches. Give summary afterwards.

<<<Understood. Starting the assimilation of the Grand Elementals of Fire & Light. >>>