The sounds of metal clashing against metal resounded through the clearing. Flashes of light and a shower of sparks appeared and disappeared all around as two combatants clashed in a fierce battle. The constant exchanges carried on for several minutes before one of the two rival fighters stopped their assault. They started gathering their fighting spirit Aura into their hand before quickly releasing it towards their opponent, who gracefully weaved between each shot and slowly closing the distance between both fighters.
Then, in a single moment, the second fighter appeared in front of the first, with their sword outstretched, meer millimeters away from the neck of the first.
"Damn Alaster. You've really gotten stronger these last two years." Twilight complimented.
"Well, god was my teacher so it'd be pretty bad if I didn't," I replied to him and sheathed my sword.
"True, but didn't he just throw you at Velgrynd and Velzard for training though?" Twilight quipped.
"Well, Velgrynd was good for me, since my [Argonaut] is a part of the Light Series System which is a subset of her 'heat' system which she has authority over, so it wasn't all that bad," I say, scratching the back of my head. "Besides, I went to train with Velzard on my own." I continued.
"Oh? Got a crush huh? I was out rounding up the Tiefling survivors for the past year so I didn't notice, but it seems like little Alaster is growing up!" Twilight said with a smug smile on his face and wiping away fake tears like he is a proud parent or something.
I immediately punched him square in the face after hearing what he said. My cheeks had a slight red tint. I tried not to think about it too much as I was far to busy with training these last few years to worry about something like that. Still, I felt like I'd lose if I let Twilight continue on like this, so I fired back at him.
"Not like your love life is much better!. The only way you can get laid at all is by flashing your job at fairies. Don't they always end up running away with your children to raise them away from you too?"
"OY! That only happened four times! The Elves, Dwarves, Vampires, and Merfolk don't count!" Twilight called out in a huff.
"Isn't that like... half of them?" I responded smugly. Twilight turned his head away and began whistling as if he didn't hear me which ticked me off, so I laid into him more.
"And let's not even get started on how the High Humans turned out under your care..." I said teasingly.
"Jahil was my first try! It's no wonder he was considered a failure!" Twilight responded with a red face.
"Well, whatever. Anyway, I won the bet, so you have to give me what I won, right?" I responded, changing the subject.
Twilight sighed and shook his head before pulling out a long red spear that radiated an absurd aura. "Here. This was the spear I gave to Jahil before he died and reclaimed from the castle after his death. It's called the Origin Blood. It's a Mystical Grade Weapon that even the True Dragons would struggle to defend against." He said to me seriously.
"Sweet!" I said, taking the weapon from Twilight and giving it a few spins.
"You don't even use spears. Why did you want it?" Twilight asked.
"Wasn't this the 'Weapon of Humanity' you were bragging about? Of course, as Humanity's Guardian Hero, I should have this." I stated, matter of factly.
"You're getting too far ahead of yourself with that stupid title... besides, you can't turn it into a sword like Sylvia's Vajra, so what are you going to do with it?" he asked.
"Hmm... maybe I'll make it into a floating weapon and use it for attack and defense...?" I thought aloud.
"Why are you saying that like it's a question? You're such a strange man." Twilight responded.
"It's part of my charm! Everyone was saying how interesting I was before, right? Now you gotta deal with my weirdness!" I boasted.
"It seems you are having you're fun, Alaster, Twilight" A voice called out from behind me.
I turned to greet the woman who approached. "Velzard! How are you doing this lovely morning?" I called out with a smile on my face.
"You know me. Just taking it slow." She said as she sauntered over. "Brother wanted to call for you, Alaster, so I volunteered to come pick you up."
"Oh?" I responded, a bit surprised but happy. "Its pretty rare for him to call me over. Normally he just throws my training onto someone else. I wonder if something important is about to happen."
"I don't know, but after Brother went out to deal with Dagruel, he's been taking things easy." She responded.
"I know. He's been a bit lazy recently. Didn't he one-shot Dagruel though? Why does he pretend it was such a hard-fought battle." I complained as I walked with her and towards the floating golden gate that Velzard had come through to pick me up. These gates lead to the Heavenly Star Palace and other than Veldanava, only Velzard could summon and open them.
"Is that so? Isn't that his right to do so, being as he is the strongest?" Velzard asked curiously.
"I suppose but since he was the one to beat him, I wish he'd have taken responsibility for giving him a job and teaching him the ropes rather than just throwing the job at me." I sighed as we walked onward. Velzard giggled at my misfortune for a moment before we continued on in comfortable silence.
Velzard seemed to be quite happy today for some reason but I didn't want to spoil the mood, so I decided not to asked her. As we walked, she started humming to herself in the tune of a song I had taught her from the memories of my past life. I didn't even remember the name of the song but all I can say was that it must have been catchy as hell for me to remember it 15 years later.
After several minutes of walking together, we arrived at one of the many gardens scattered throughout the Heavenly Star Palace. The scenery was gorgeous with thousands of colorful flowers in bloom under a warm sunny day with clouds hanging lazily in the sky. We saw Veldanava, Velgrynd, Ramiris, Feldway, and strangely enough Dino sitting together in the field having what I can only assume to be a picnic without food, as they were just chilling, talking about nothing of relevance but having the time of their lives.
Ramiris was the first to see us and looked over with a happy smile. "Alaser! Velzard!" She said as her wings fluttered and she quickly glidded towards us.
""Tsk-"" I heard from behind and in front of me.
It was obvious that Feldway was the one in front of me, but I didn't know why Velzard was clicking her tongue too. I turned my head towards her, but only saw her smiling back at me. I was prepared to ask her what was wrong but Ramiris arrived and began to float around the two of us before I could.
"Alaster! Alaster! It's done! It took me a long time to create, but it's finally done!" Ramiris said to me excitedly with a big hug.
"What is?" I asked, pushing the excited fairy queen off of me.
"Remember when you said to me to create that thing!" Ramiris explained.
Veldanava and the others also approached at that moment and filled me in on what she was talking about.
"She is talking about the Hero's Egg you mentioned before." Velgrynd chimed in.
"What!?! Did you make it already? Didn't you say you thought it would take at least ten years and its been less than two?" I exclaimed in excitement.
"That's right! Praise me! Praise me!" Ramiris said as she happily floated around.
"I was a bit skeptical about giving Ramiris access to the Awakening function of the System, however, it seems like it worked out fine but I guess I worried for nothing. Like you originally proposed, now all of Twilight's descendants can awaken as a 'True Hero' with the blessing of the spirits." Veldanava explained.
"Haha. Thanks for your faith in me, master." I replied meekly while scratching the side of my head. 'Actually, you or her would have come up with that method sooner or later anyway. I just proposed how it worked in canon a bit earlier than you would have thought it up. It feels kinda slimy to take credit for it.' I thought to myself.
"Well, I'm sure Veldanava-sama would have been able to come up with it eventually. He simply didn't want to bother himself with it." Feldway chimed in but everyone ignored him and continued talking.
"Well, do you want to try it out now? I can add it to your soul right now if you'd like." Ramiris said, squirming a little in anticipation.
"Thanks, Ramiris, but I'd like to max out my current strength first. I don't want any wasted potential, you know?" I said to her.
"Boo~" Ramiris pouted.
"I know you've finally finished your evolution to become a Saint but I didn't create anything higher than that for the human race so taking the hero's Egg and awakening isn't something you need to worry about. Besides, I want to see the power boost so I can better balance it in the future." Veldanava explained to me.
'Why does this guy sound like a game developer all of a sudden?' I thought before I shook my head and threw up my arms in surrender.
"All right, all right! I suppose I don't have to hatch it this instant anyways either, so I'll take it for now." I said.
"Yea!!!" Ramiris celebrated before quickly floating up to be, placing her hands on either side of my face, and pulling me into a kiss.
The action was so sudden that everyone was stunned into silence. After about five seconds, Ramiris retreated from me with a happy expression. "It's done! Why don't you have a sparring match with someone to see how much your strength has improved?" She suggested.
"Good idea," Feldway said with a wicked smile. "I'd love to beat- I mean test, your friend out here."
"Feldway, your inner motive is leaking out," Veldanava commented off to the side.
I was prepared to accept a rematch with the cocky angel when I suddenly felt a chill run up my spine. "No, Feldway. I'll fight him myself." I heard from behind me.
I looked back and saw that Velzard was smiling quite happily but her eyes were not smiling. Something told me that this quick 'sparring session' was about to turn into a survival challenge.
"V-Velzard... are you angry perchance?" I asked hesitantly.
I could have sworn I saw Velgrynd facepalm and Veldanava sigh out of the corner of my eye. Actually, I did see that using my [Magic Sense] but decided to pretend that I didn't. Ramiris even had a sweat drop on her forehead but it seemed Feldway was smiling angrily.
'Why do I feel like I'm the protagonist who just pissed off a yandere-' I thought before I felt like a lightbulb went off in my head.
"Wait a minute... Velzard do you... do you like me?" I asked with a bit of hesitation.
The chilling look she was giving me was instantly erased as her face lit up with shock and flushed becoming entirely bright pink. I'd never seen her face flushed, so it was a novel experience for me. All I could think of at that moment was that she was incredibly cute.
"Wa-wawawawawawawa!!!" Velzard panicked a bit before turning around and running down the hallway holding her face in her hand.
"Wait what just happened!?!" I yelled while holding my hand out as if to somehow stop her with the force like I was a jedi.
"Real smooth there, Alaster," Velgrynd said with annoyance.
"Wait is this really happening?" I asked aloud to no one. It was too shocking. I'd never been in a situation like this before. I usually knew when someone liked me and could act accordingly, but I had zero clue that Velzard was into me and now I was quickly replaying all the memories I'd had with her over the last 2 years in an attempt to see how long this had been going on for.
Sure I knew Eveyln and, to a certain extent Noella liked me romantically and I'm sure that Irene had a crush on me too but never in a million years did I think Velzard was into me.
I ended up looking at Veldanava for a moment and tried to explain myself, as I was worried he wouldn't like the fact that his sister was into me but my mind was in such a mess that I couldn't come up with any words. "I- uh..."
"Should you really be talking to ME right now?" He said with a wry smile.
I didn't say anything more after that and turned on my heels and sprinted after Velzard.
"Wait! Velzard and Alaster liked each other!?!" Ramiris yelled in shock.
"You're just now realizing it!?!" Velgrynd yelled back.
"I know, the tension in the air was thick enough to cut butter with," Dino commented from below everyone.
"Dino... Why are you laying on the floor?" Veldanava asked to which Dino shrugged.
Feldway put his head in his hand. "It's because Alaster kept telling him he could lay down back before he developed his ego that he became so lazy right?" He muttered to himself.
"Oh? i thought it was just 'cause he had a lazy nature." Veldanava answered as everyone changed gears from talking about the two lovers to the nature of the Angel beneath them.
.~.~.~.
A/N: I know that a lot of people wanted to have Velgrynd be the MC, but I am part of the White Hair club! Besides, Velzard was the intended capture target since the beginning as her relationship with Guy is completely one-sided and Guy is never shown to be different around or because of her. Plus Velzard's personality is a lot less defined so I can make it work better without ruining Rimuru's plot progression.
I have several reasons why the MFL isn't Velgrynd. If I made Velgrynd be with Alaster, there would be no way Rudra would be able to attack Rimuru during the war and have Rimuru fight two true dragons. He couldn't give away [Uriel] to her to create [Divine Flame King Cthugha] or be under pressure to name [Raphale] so he would fall to Michael's domination and then we'd be f*cked story-wise.
There is also no way to organically give Rudra another True Dragon. Only Velgaia comes to mind, and I have plans for him/her that are completely different. (Ironically enough Velgaia was going to be the mfl during my first draft of the story since I could make her personality to be whatever I wanted to but I felt like that was a cop-out.)