Harbingers of Change

Chapter 19

There wasn't a dull moment in his life, there never had been and never would be. If Demiurge wasn't carrying out the direct orders from the Supreme Ones, then he was either expanding both the military and intelligence network or he was working on other ways to extend the influence of the domain Lord Momonga ruled over. There was always something more to do.

Even now, he was working on thwarting whatever schemes Mariabell had in mind, all while having a light breakfast with his fellow floor guardian, Mare. After all, it was important to find time to interact with his peers and maintain friendly relations to ensure commands and advice were always accepted in a timely manner. Mare, in particular, fascinated him as a person and was a very interesting case of psychology.

The boy on the surface was a shy and perhaps even cowardly person, but behind this facade was a cunning and calculating mind capable of courting one of the new Supreme Ones; Milim.

"T-the new dryads are not causing any problems, but they are more militant than Treyni's group," Mare explained while taking small bites from a toast with strawberry jam and sipping orange juice, sighing.

"That is interesting. Would you be interested in seeing how they perform in tandem with regular military units? I believe if properly trained, your new dryads could be turned into an elite strike unit under your direct command to wield nature magic in your stead," Demiurge made an offer. His choice of meal for breakfast was pan-fried armorsaurus eggs with a heavy dose of bacon, a special recipe inspired by Lord Peroroncino.

"Sure, that sounds great. Sis is nagging me about making my private army like hers with those werewolves, and Mom agrees with her. I was debating between summoning spirits or using the dryads." Mare nodded after taking another careful bite.

"In that case-" Demiurge abruptly halted as the Nazarick defense grid warning system issued a code black alert which, although implemented a while ago during the first few weeks of their arrival in this world, had never been triggered before. Even Leon's stealthy attack triggered only code orange which was two levels below the maximum, and he had been decked out in god-grade equipment.

Something incredibly powerful had just torn through all defenses like wet paper and now stood in front of Tempest's Royal castle without any attempt to hide its presence. Its measured magical power was estimated to be on par with Veldora, one of the other Supreme Ones.

"Code black! I have to go. We will continue this conversation later. Make sure Lady Buku is safe and get your sister to assist you!" Demiurge stood up, barking orders at the boy.

{ Wrath, Lust, Envy, Greed, coordinate the arrival to my side at the Tempest Castle entrance. } He first sent an order to his direct subordinates as he began the spatial magic for teleportation.

{ Code black! Cocytus, Shalltear, be ready to arrive at the castle entrance with supporting units in three… two… one… now! } then contacting his peers, shifting them all into action.

The strike team was made to hold back anything this world could supposedly throw at them until a proper defense response could be amassed. Consisting of some of their strongest fighters, it had been designed to stall for time until the heaviest hitters like Rubedo or the Supreme Ones themselves could arrive and force the hands of their opponents.

Teleporting into ground zero revealed a beautiful woman with Germanic features, dressed in a dark-colored Chinese dress adorned with a golden dragon pattern and long white gloves. Her long azure blue hair was fashioned into twin buns secured with dark ribbons. The woman's golden eyes fell on him as her fiery aura threatened to burn everything to ash around her, including him.

If a fight were to break out, the damage done to the capital would likely be incalculable, not to mention a heavy loss of life that would occur if the evacuations weren't performed in time. Tens of thousands would perish, and tens of thousands of gold coins would be lost. And that was assuming they won.

"Good morning, madam. Would you please state the reason for invading Tempest's space without any prior warning?" Demiurge greeted her politely. The more he could stall, the better chances there were to minimize damage and gather information.

"Is that how I am greeted within my brother's domain? Hmph," The woman huffed, showing her dissatisfaction with the welcome team. Her eyes only seemed to flare more, akin to Lord Momonga's but in an aura sense, not a literal sense.

'That narrows it down. This, no doubt, is one of Lord Veldora's sisters. Considering that her energies are fire-based, it is safe to assume this would be Velgrynd.' Demiurge deducted who the woman was in an instant. Since she was just sticking her nose in the air and not showing any clear intent for aggression, the safest option was to treat this as a surprise visit from a foreign royal and contact the Supreme Ones.

{ Lord Momonga, we- }

{ Do not provoke her. Treat Velgrynd with the utmost respect and lead her to one of the guest rooms. Veldora and I will receive her shortly. } Momonga interrupted him, predictably being more informed than him, like the Supreme Ruler always was.

"My deepest apologies, Lady Velgrynd." Demiurge bowed, ordering everyone present to do the same as they did. "I was not aware you were the esteemed Lord Veldora's sister. Lord Veldora and Lord Momonga will be ready to receive you shortly. This way, please." He motioned towards the entrance.

"Oh, I'm at fault too for barging in unannounced. But I'm sure you know how my little brother is and could've forgotten to mention he has a family." Velgrynd's demeanor softened as she broke into a faint smile. Crisis temporarily averted. The ball was in the court of the Supreme Ones now.

<X>

"I don't want to!" Veldora whined as Ramiris forcefully tried to shove a white shirt on him while Buku intensely assaulted the dragon's hair with a mithril comb.

"We are not having our capital melted because you are a goddamn wimp! Now get your shit together, be on your best behavior, and let's meet your sister!" Buku shouted over the dragon's whining as Momonga overlooked the scene, unreadable as ever.

"She doesn't seem hostile. But I suspect she has sensed the awakenings of Kagali and Hinata and is here to investigate. Veldora, we will be by your side, I'm sure you can interact with your sister in a friendly manner just for a short while," The overlord spoke in a dignified manner, preparing to meet the third strongest entity they had encountered after Milim and Veldora. Preliminary magicule analysis had suggested that the true dragon was almost on par with Veldora in terms of magicule count alone, and her magicule control far surpassed even what either of their world-native guild members could achieve.

"I can! It's her you should be worried about!" Veldora retorted, finally giving in and allowing Buku and Ramiris to make him more presentable since most of the maids had already been removed from the area for their safety, knowing that Veldora could harm them by accident if he lost control over his aura due to stress. Not to mention the possibility that a fight with Velgrynd could break out which even in most controlled situations would result in the complete loss of the castle and the surrounding district at a bare minimum.

"I'll protect you, you big baby. Geez, I think I already understand her!" Buku commented, drawing parallels between Veldora and her own younger brother as her own aura flared out.

"Fine…" Veldora grumbled through his teeth, resigning himself to his fate.

"Ready?" Momonga asked as Ramiris finished buttoning up Veldora's shirt and Buku straightened out her long, red high-cut dress, a slit showing most of her right leg, which she had hastily put on for the occasion. On the off chance that a fight did break out, it would be Rubedo and the world-enders led by Momonga, who would fight the true dragon, while she would stay in the back lines, using her skill to weaken Velgrynd. Veldora and Milim would only get involved if absolutely necessary, given their familial relationship.

After getting a nod of agreement from Buku and a pained look from Veldora, he led the small group to meet the royal guest. Ramiris wisely teleported back to the great Tomb, not wanting to even poke the dragon siblings' relationship with a ten-foot stick.

Momonga and Buku were first to enter the guest room, side by side, the cowardly dragon looking over Momonga's shoulder with one eye behind his back. They found Velgrynd being served tea by Yuri Alpha, as out of all castle personnel, only the Pleiades remained. The rest had been evacuated via teleportation to other strongholds around Tempest, including officially unincorporated territories. So had many of the city's citizens.

The dragoness casually took a sip and put down the cup. "Is this how you greet your sister after all this time?" She stared over Momonga's shoulder, ignoring the undead.

"Y-you didn't come to visit when I was in prison. So don't start about who's the rude one!" Veldora straightened out and pointed at his sister in an accusatory manner from behind Momonga.

"You misbehaved, so we decided to let you have your timeout to reflect on your actions, and from what I am seeing, it has worked. Good thing I let Velzard talk me out of freeing you a century ago. You even managed to make a few friends," Velgrynd remarked calmly as her aura flared, blackening the paint on the walls in the blink of an eye.

"You could have let me out a century ago, but you didn't! Go away, I don't want to see you again." Veldora huffed and turned to face away from his sister, crossing his arms as he went to leave the room.

"Why are you acting like it is the end of the world? It's called the consequences of your actions. I hoped you would have finally learned that." Velgrynd's tone grew more aggressive as she glared back at her brother.

"You let him rot alone for three God damn hundred years and act like it's nothing. And don't get me started on Milim!" Buku raised her voice.

"It's adorable you want to stand up for Veldora, but we dragons see things on a different time scale. If you had a brother like him, you would understand that sometimes they need to be put in place for their own sake," Velgrynd stated, leaning back in her chair. "As for Milim… things are complicated. I hope she's alright."

"She does have a point," Buku glanced at Veldora.

"Hey! Don't take her side!" Veldora screeched.

"Come here, brother. I know how to make you stop pouting. You know I don't like to see you upset," Velgrynd stood up and approached the group.

Veldora let out a squeak and froze in place. Before Momonga and Buku could stop her, she teleported past both and embraced her statue-like brother in a tight hug. The supposedly mighty dragon let out a squeaking sound like that of a rubber duck and awkwardly wrapped his hands around his sister who was a head shorter than him, returning the hug.

"You should know I'm happy you're doing so well and having friends. Your big sister is proud of you," Her pitch changed as if she was talking to a little kid.

"Y-yeah, it's… it's good to see you too." Veldora barely managed to get out.

Velgrynd let go of him a few moments later, but not before rising to stand on the tips of her boots, planting a kiss on his cheek and ruffling his hair. "See, all better. Now, can you forgive your sister for not taking you out of that bubble?"

"I…I guess so. Sis, are you not mad at me?" Veldora cautiously asked.

"Of course not. I am so happy to meet my younger siblings," She exclaimed.

"Siblings?" Veldora cocked his head.

"Oh, you both didn't think you could hide it from me." Velgrynd turned to face Momonga. "I came to see you as well, little brother. And I must say, your aesthetic fits your aspect. However, I would recommend you to at least consider a more… human-like appearance from time to time. It's kind of a family tradition to use human forms when we don't use our dragon ones. Your oldest sister Velzard also takes a human form."

"How did you know?" Momonga inquired, relying on emotional suppression to remain calm.

"Veldora, didn't you teach anything to your brother? I know he's been a true dragon for just a few days, but that's not an excuse to be lazy." Velgrynd used the opportunity to scold her siblings before returning her attention to the Overlord. "I could sense you joining the family, Death Dragon Momonga. It's exciting to see more of my kind arise when we haven't had a new one in so long,"

"I see…in that case, sister, I would like to request you to warn us before visiting. Just breaking through the defense system is not the way to go about family meetings I would believe," Momonga played along with her claims of being siblings. In technical terms, he was the same type of being as her, and if she wanted to see him as family, he wasn't about to waste the opportunity to use it in his favor.

"Lecturing your older sister already. Why am I cursed with such disrespectful younger brothers?" Velgrynd lamented loudly. "You should always listen to your elder sister, you know!"

"I wouldn't get your hopes up, it seems the nature of younger brothers to be disrespectful little shits. But Momonga has a point, you can't just tear through our defenses without warning," Buku spoke up, staring at the blue-haired woman.

"You have a younger brother?" Velgrynd questioned.

"Yeah, and he's best friends with Veldora." Buku glanced at the dragon with a tired sigh.

"Tell me about it…" She grabbed Buku by hand, leading her back to the table. "I will give a proper warning next time. Just don't make it an official event. I wasn't supposed to visit you both." Velgrynd promised, waving for both to leave.

"What just happened?" Veldora whispered as both he and Momonga left the room letting the two women chat.

"I think Buku and your sister just became friends on the common ground of being the older sisters to annoying younger brothers," Momonga replied. "I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing."

Letting Buku handle things from there was the best option to ensure Velgrynd's visits were more manageable and did not cause a crisis each time she appeared in Tempest. If his assessment of her power level were accurate, killing her wouldn't be impossible, but it would still result in massive damage and unforeseen political consequences.

"I have a bad feeling about this. Pero needs to know! Oh, by the way, why is Velgrynd calling you brother?" Veldora asked.

"Because I used the true dragon type of existence as a template for my evolution. If all true dragons are supposed to be siblings, then you and I are technically ones as well." Momonga explained.

"Wait a minute! I'm not the youngest anymore. You're my little bro! There is so much-"

"Just stop." Momonga glared at the overly enthusiastic dragon, eyes flaring.

"Come on, we are proper bros now, not just by name. I need to show you the family ways!" Veldora grabbed Momonga's shoulder, pulling him closer.

"I'm starting to see why you get disciplined so often," Momonga retorted, hitting Veldora where it hurts.

"So, this is how it is. Already challenging your big bro for the man of the family title!" Veldora roared in response.

"Veldora, that's enough. I have no time for childish games. Besides, shouldn't you be working on the rocket targeting systems?" Momonga shut down his challenge, leaning on his authoritative side and channeling his dread aura.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go do that. But it's on, bro!" Veldora let out one last roar before teleporting away.

'Things just got a lot more complicated. It's safe to assume the other sister's visit is inevitable.' Momonga realized that family visits from his accidentally acquired siblings were inevitable and couldn't be stalled anymore.

Editing by aidan_lo.

Proofreading by aidan_lo, Sluethen, clagan, FantasyTroll, Cay, NuggetLover, shynavyseal, KieraKieraARTS, CakeEight, and Nervy.

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