Harbingers of Change

Chapter 32

Momonga sat at the end of the table, resting his pointy chin held in his bony hands.

Buku had taken a seat to his right in a half-slouching position and was rubbing her eyes with her thumb and index finger, exhausted from the work they had done.

The rest of the seats were occupied by guild members and floor guardians, alongside other prominent servant staff members like Ramiris, Sebas, Diablo, and Pandora who also held great importance. Kagali, a rapidly emerging consultant of Momonga, was present as well. Overseeing the meeting was Nazarick, having made ten copies of herself spread evenly between the chairs.

The last two present were Chloe and Hinata since the two were connected to Chronoa and could potentially provide additional insight into the situation.

"We have found no trace of Chronoa or Yuuki. After a deeper analysis of how he broke through the defense system Luminous set up, I have reason to believe that he has learned new tricks and likely can hide from the view of shadow demons with the off chance that he is greatly diminishing the specter's ability to notice him as well," Demiurge read a report out loud, giving disheartening news for everyone present.

'Things just keep piling up. I should have expected this turn of events. At least I can be assured that the target will be me. Ker would not waste an asset like this just to spite me and kill those close to me,' Momonga grimly mused.

"So even if we manage to get eyes on every patch of land in this whole world, we still wouldn't find him?" Buku asked, her voice low.

"I will redouble my efforts in finding Yuuki and anyone who has allied with him. Perhaps holding Mariabell hostage would make Granbell reveal everything he knows," Demiurge suggested.

"There are no guarantees he would know where Yuuki is hiding, and we finally have a chance for a period of tentative peace to build up our forces. Unless it is a near certainty that both are allied and such action wouldn't lead to another enemy sliding into the shadows through our fingers, it's better not to make rash moves. Yuuki could be puppeteering Granbell from the shadows, and dropping the facade of our tentative alliance might cause the rest of human nations to go into a suicidal last stand, which isn't something we would want at the moment." Momonga shut down his idea.

"We still need to prepare for a strike. He could unleash Chronoa upon us any minute, right?" Pero commented, sighing.

"Ker won't send Chronoa against me as is. First, she is already aware of the existence of Rubedo. And Chronoa, with her assumed power level from the testimony of Chloe, Luminous, and Hinata, wouldn't be enough against me alone. I would bank on Yuuki striking us when we are engaged with Guy, Rudra, or in the worst-case scenario, both, and would only then throw everything he has at us. He would use the time meanwhile to empower Chronoa through similar methods he has used in the past, which might be bothersome considering that her base level isn't even in the same category as Hinata's even after her evolution," Momonga revealed his thoughts on the matter.

"So, we just need to prepare for fighting everything at the same time. We can do it!" Milim jumped to her feet with an enthusiastic shout.

"Milim, did you not read the file on Ker?" Buku glared at the girl.

"I did… probably," Milim mumbled, sitting down.

"Milim?" Buku raised her voice a bit.

Milim looked away attempting to whistle with no success. A moment later she perked up. "Right, that was the Goddess messing with Dad because of Shalltear. That doesn't mean we can't defeat anything she and Yuuki throw at us."

"It still would be better to not fight everything at once, although we probably should prepare like we might have to do just that," Buku commented.

"If I may?" Demiurge raised his hand, asking permission to speak.

"Feel free to give your input. That goes for the rest of you as well," Momonga gestured for the demon to continue.

"If Chronoa's attack is inevitable and she no doubt will pose a significant threat, then I propose we find a weakness to exploit. We have Chloe who, by her own admission, should know everything about this alternate expression of herself," Demiurge proposed.

"She only cares about Rimuru, but he isn't in this timeline. There is nothing else that would calm her down or even make her listen," Chloe sighed, slumping in her chair.

Rimuru was the second person she had grown very fond of. Maybe it was Chronoa's obsessive dark personality that desired him, but she was the one who put those desires there in the first place. Rimuru, after all, was the one she loved and could never have, even after dozens of timelines.

"Time travel should be possible in all directions, and we already have Chloe's skill as a template, and we've used it for particle experiments, right Pandora?" Veldora boasted about his line of work.

"Correct Herr Veldora. Vater, we already have a theoretical outline for making a spacetime tunnel between timelines using Chloe's skill and summoning magic as a foundation. At least on a particle level. If we progress at the same pace, we should be able to harvest materials from failed timelines at an energy-effective, time-effective rate within a year with the possibility of moving living entities as well." Pandora explained after jumping to his feet, clapping his boots together and saluting.

"Then we should obtain this Rimuru as a deterrent. I'm sure we can develop methods of control to ensure he doesn't use Chronoa against us," Albedo spoke up.

"Putting a collar on him should work. Luminous is obedient after Lord Momonga enslaved her," Shalltear chipped in.

"We could always beat him into submission," Shion also joined in, not wanting to fall behind her peers and reaching for her odachi.

"Taming also could work," Aura made her suggestion, wanting her chance to be useful beyond her standard duties.

"Rimuru should be friendly to you. He was named by Veldora and carries the same last name," Chole couldn't take the increasingly horrible suggestions on how to control Rimuru and attempted to shut it all down.

"That might complicate things politically," Buku remarked, staring at the dragon as if he was the cause of all their problems. "If we and this Rimuru share the last name and he was named by Veldora, there might be unforeseen reactions from those connected to Nazarick. Furthermore, we don't know how strong this Rimuru would be, considering that he was the supposed leader of Tempest in all the other timelines."

"Everything can be adjusted if the need arises. The question is if it's even worth trying to get Rimuru in our timeline. There might be unforeseen side effects that no one has accounted for," Momonga shifted his gaze between Pandora, Ramiris, and Veldora whose actions gave birth to Manas Nazarick.

"Chief, that went better than we expected. We have been experimenting with temporal forces for close to six months and there hasn't been a single outcome outside of our predictions, and now that we have full access to Chloe's skill our new models look more than promising." Veldora defended his team, crossing his arms.

As the only guild member among the three science department leaders, he understood the need to speak up for his teammates, and he would be the one to do so. Research by itself was time-consuming and difficult art, and an underappreciated one at that.

"Still, this is not a decision that should be taken lightly. I want to use the old guild approach we had when making major decisions. First, Chloe will explain what she knows about Rimuru and then everyone will voice their opinion," Momonga announced. "You may start."

Chloe stood up, nervously playing with her fingers. "As I have said before, Rimuru was the one who put events in motion in the previous timelines until Nazarick replaced him. He was the one to name most of those who joined Tempest and used the same names each time so he would know most of the native people of the world and even many otherworlders. He was easygoing and as a pacifist, he strove for peace. He tried to be friends with everyone, even if he knew people tried to take advantage of him for that."

"He tried to be a pacifist in this world with all that is going on? No wonder he kicks the bucket again and again," Buku commented. "I don't think we'll have any problem controlling him."

"Those idealist types can be a pain in the ass. But hey, it's better having someone who nags us about world peace than figuring out how to deal with a psycho yandere without the guy she wants. Worse comes to worst, we give him a little slice of land that'd double as a prison to rule over if he's so much trouble to handle," Pero voiced his opinion next.

"If I named him, we no doubt would be buddies. I say let's bring him here," Veldora also didn't object to bringing Rimuru in, nodding.

"Does that mean I knew him too? Chloe, why didn't I protect him?" Milim asked.

"Most of the time you were not near during Rimuru's demise. In some timelines, you killed me or Hinata and Luminous after Rimuru died. In one timeline, you killed him by accident when you first met due to your overwhelming power," Chloe explained.

"Then let's get him. I don't see how he'd make things worse," Milim cast her vote as well.

"Do the rest of you have anything to add?" Momonga asked, fingers tapping.

"I would recommend finding Rimuru and adding him to the ranks of Nazarick. Considering we have three enemies, every addition helps, and if he was the leader in so many timelines, he surely held powers useful for us to harness. That said his ambition to rule should be eradicated at its core and he needs to know his place." Albedo said.

"On that, we can agree on, but I don't think we'll have any difficulty in making sure Rimuru does exactly what we want." Buku nodded in agreement with Albedo.

After her, no one continued the conversation, so Momonga took an opportunity to ask the only other person who would know Rimuru now. "Hinata, is there anything you could add about Rimuru?"

"I can tell just one thing about him. Despite claiming to have no gender, Rimuru was a bit of a perv, and tried to bathe exclusively with women any chance he got despite being a man before his rebirth." Hinata neutrally commented.

Now fused with the other soul, she had a lot of new and old memories even from the previous timeline.

"I like this guy even more, that's freaking clever. As a fellow otherworlder, he'd fit in I suppose," Pero chuckled.

"Ah, another appreciator of the human form. We must have been good friends in the previous timeline," Veldora nodded in agreement, patting Pero on the shoulder.

Seeing that such behavior wasn't shunned but even celebrated by more than one Lord, Hinata wisely refrained from further comments.

"I see it is a unanimous vote for attempting to bring him into our timeline. Then I won't oppose it as well," Momonga declared.

"Veldora, you, together with your team, will continue with the temporal experiments, and I want updates on any breakthrough while I look into matters myself when time permits."

"Got it, chief. We won't mess things up this time," Veldora replied.

There still were a lot of possibilities for things to go wrong, but he trusted that they could be resolved. There was also an urge deep within him to meet Rimuru as his unseen influence was everywhere, as if reality itself had picked the fruits of his efforts and written them down for others to use, which he had to investigate.

<X>

With each rebirth, her husband was losing parts of himself, and was now only a shell of his once bright past. He was no longer whole.

Once, Rudra had been the hero of the people and a man who had loved her above anything else, striving to become the best he could possibly be with his family and friends. But of that man, only tiny shards remained with the rest scattered throughout the multiverse.

He was as powerful as ever, if not even stronger compared to the past, but the care and warmth she had fallen in love with just weren't there anymore. He treated her more like an asset than a loyal wife who had been by his side for many millennia, as if he were losing the humanity that had once made him special among the strongest in the world.

There were times Velgrynd thought of ending the cycle and then going on a journey to retrieve the pieces of the man she still loved despite the increasing pain of seeing him in such a state. But something within prevented her from carrying out this plan, something that wouldn't let her raise an arm against her husband, even if it would ultimately free him from this cursed state as well. She did suspect that something was influencing her decisions, but these paranoid thoughts usually faded within moments of arising.

She strode into their private chambers, a place where exceedingly few could enter, and found her husband sitting in an armchair by his table and pouring over military plans. As usual, for the past few reincarnations, he was always embroiled in pushing for the military in hopes of producing more awakened humans that would tip the scales in their favor against Guy and Velzard.

With fluid motion, she approached the Emperor of Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire and planted a wet kiss on his cheek, getting no reaction in response.

As starved for affection and intimacy as she was, Velgrynd passively accepted that her husband wouldn't respond to her attempts in a loving manner.

"Did you find out anything?" He asked matter of factly.

"Sister was close-lipped as ever, but she did say that Guy had declared Momonga Tempest the third player, and the arbiter had joined Momonga's side." She revealed her findings, hugging him close from behind.

"I see. That is troubling. And we had almost everything set in place. Back to planning, I guess." Rudra pushed the military plans off the table in frustration.

"We will come up with a new plan." she gently massaged his shoulders, whispering in his ear.

"Of course we will." He continued to ignore her attempts at seduction. "But it will take time. Did Velzard reveal more?"

"Milim is on Momonga's side which, combined with Veldora, would make Momonga's side the strongest. I doubt I can fend off both at once if I am to solo them without you." Velgrynd stopped her efforts and plopped down in bed, hiding her discontent.

'Would it kill you to at least let me be nice to you! Why did this have to happen?' Her frustration was growing daily and was bound to come out explosively any day now.

"This might work in our favor. If we could get Guy and Velzard to war with Tempest, we could clean up what remains after their clash and win." Rudra picked up a clean sheet and began to write down bullet points of her information.

"Momonga plans some big announcement. I want to make a weak copy and go to Tempest to meet him myself. I hope you don't mind." Velgrynd hid the fact that she already met her brothers in secret.

"I'll tell Kondo to pay attention to Tempest and send some of his best agents there. You don't have to go there in person," Rudra dismissed her idea, motioning for her to stay in bed.

"I want to meet my brothers. Kendo can do his thing all the same." For once she didn't just go along with his plan.

Rudra turned his head intently, staring at her. "That is unnecessary."

'It is unnecessary. But I still want to go. My little brother needs his big sister. Maybe I could even apologize to Milim,' A defiant urge grew in her.

"I will still go. One percent of me, not more," She insisted.

"You will not go there!" Rudra's tone grew demanding. He hadn't done that in millennia, but she supposed he had lost enough of his humanity to become who he was … now.

'I won't go there… Why is he acting like this? I want to meet my family again…' She couldn't wrap her head around why Rudra would deny her this opportunity, why would he deny even a singular percent from going out? She'd recover the energy necessary in a few minutes anyway if it got destroyed.

"Fine, you win! Happy?!" She raised her voice.

"I am just saying that it is better if we leave espionage to Kondo," His tone grew softer.

'Your agent cannot follow all my copies. I will go there anyway. I just need to pick a disguise,' She decided to defy her husband's wishes in secret, the first time she had done so in centuries.

In just a few days she would meet her brothers again.

Editing by aidan_lo.

Proofreading by aidan_lo, KieraKieraARTS, Malguis, clagan, Sluethen, Cay, NuggetLover, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, CakeEight, Working_Stiff, and Stac.

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