I'm Veldora, So What?

"Ha!" Shizu cried out, having swung her flame-coated sword once more, sending embers and sparks drifting through the air with remarkable grace.

I nod my head as I approach the private area Rimuru had set up behind his house, looking over to see the now distinctly human-looking Rimuru sitting and watching Shizu's practice, seemingly entranced. I smile lightly at the sight momentarily before deciding to walk over to Rimuru and stand beside him.

"Gotta say, seeing an elf woman swinging a flaming sword really is a turn-on, huh?" I tease.

Rimuru blushes, finally noticing me after breaking out of his trance. "Veldora? What's-oh yeah. Miss Shizu is truly amazing." He stutters.

I nod and allow a comfortable silence to linger for a moment before continuing. "So... why aren't you out there?" I asked.

Rimuru smiled slightly awkwardly. "I don't have a sword and the Dwarf brothers are all currently swamped with teaching the HobGoblins and Goblinas their crafts to spend time making me one."

I nod. "Couldn't you borrow Shizu's?" I ask.

Rimuru shakes his head. "Nah, Shizu said she wants to get back into shape in her new body, and I don't want to distract her. Apparently, she spent quite a long time being unable to move like she could when she was younger due to Ifrit's influence, and now, with an even stronger body, she has to retrain herself to reach her new peak. I don't want to interrupt her with teaching me." He explained.

I sighed and shook my head. "Really?" I tease. "I thought you were just getting too turned on by watching your sexy elf-lady girlfriend work up a sweat to train properly."

Rimuru flinched and blushed before looking away. "Well... there is that too..." There was a pause in which Rimuru didn't meet my eyes for a moment before he finally got upset and tried to change the subject. "Anyway! I still need to have a sword made for me! Hopefully something high quality."

I nodded my head and hummed to myself, thinking. "Well... if it doesn't matter which sword there is one I know about..." I said, stroking my chin.

Rimuru looked up at me. "Kaijin said that swords made by [Material Creation] like the rest of your equipment would be inferior to forged swords, so I don't want open that you'd make." Rimuru said to me flatly.

I nodded, consulting [Faust], and Kaijin was right... to a certain extent. "Well, this sword would be something I didn't make, so we are good on that front... though I'll have to go get it." I muttered.

Rimuru looked up at me confused. "You're going to get me a sword?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, it'll be great! Ok, I'll be back in a bit." I said as I turned to walk away.

Rimuru tried to get up and stop me, probably having had a bad feeling. "It's ok! You don't need to go out of your way!"

"Nah! I'm bored since Luminous went home and your reaction to it will be classic! See you in a few hours!" I stated before I took off into the air at speed, breaking the sound barrier as I reached several thousand feet.

"Now let's see here... according to [Faust], his workshop should be over... THERE!" I said, orientation myself toward the East. I took a step off the air, pushing off it like it was a solid surface, and began zooming toward my desired location, transforming into my Dragon form for the first time in a while.

'I'd rather not run into my sister, so...' I thought as I concealed my presence as much as possible and absorbed my leaking aura. I then cast an invisibility spell using Illusion Magic to take care of the problem of being spotted visually. This wasn't a foolproof method, but unless Velgrynd was actively searching for me, then I'd definitely go unnoticed so long as I didn't linger for too long.

It only took me a few hours of travel across the Great Forest of Jura and the Eastern Empire before I arrived at my destination. At the very edge of the continent's most north-eastern peninsula, along a section of small rocky cliffs bordered by forests, there was an old castle hidden away by the magic of the elementals.

Deciding to remain invisible lest some lookout still be tasked with observing the region, I transformed myself back into my human form and descended, passing directly through the barrier without tripping its alerts using [Faust] and a bit of Spatial Manipulation.

This place was the workshop of my older brother, Veldanava when he was transitioning between True Dragon and Human so that he could be with my Sister-in-Law Lucia. He fancied himself a Castle Lord and blacksmith for a small town that used to reside where the forest now lay thousands of years ago.

My goal lay within the vault below.

As I approached the still-immaculate doorway sustained over thousands of years through magic, I admired the surroundings one last time.

"This magic seems a bit... fresh for a several millennia-old castle. I wonder who is upkee-" I was interrupted from my pondering out loud by the swing of a sword.

I caught the blade with my right hand and blocked the shield charge of the red-haired woman who attacked me with my left arm. The impact kicked up dirt in the courtyard and sent a shockwave out from the impact, but I was unharmed and was unmoved by the impact.

"Impossible!" The woman said in shock as she jumped backward, retreating using a flap of her six blackened angel wings.

She glared daggers at me that could kill. Literally, she was using some kind of instant death magic cast by her eyes. "Who are you!?!"

I smirked and dropped my illusion magic, becoming visible once again. "Really, Garasha?" I asked.

She didn't seem to connect the dots.

"It's me! It's me!" I said again, pointing to myself.

"Another 'It's me!' scam! How do you people keep getting through the barrier!" Garasha asked, her stance becoming sharper.

"How do you even know about that!?! How do those people even get here!?!" I asked exasperated before shaking my head and clearing away my confusion. "No! I't me, Veldora! You know, the Storm Dragon!" I explained.

Garasha's body loosened in realization. "Oh!" Then she lunged at me again with even greater speed, her aura surrounding her sword and swinging it fully intending to kill me.

I ducked under the swing, as I knew that she'd infused this strike with her [Administrative Authority] to give it enough power to seriously hurt me if I let it strike.

"Whoah there! What's with the hostility!?!" I asked.

"The last time you 'visited', you destroyed Lord Veldanava's town! I will not let you destroy the castle as well!" Garasha explained.

"Ah!" I said, both recalling that I had indeed rampaged back then and destroyed Veldanava's town the last time I'd visited and from the shield bash to my face connecting.

'I knew the forest here was familiar, it grew using my residual aura sort of like how the Jura Forest did.' I thought before side-stepping another swing from Garasha and jumping over her follow-up shield swipe, landing behind her and ducking again to force her to miss her decapitation strike.

"Now now... I'm not going to go on a rampage this time, I promise." I said, trying to calm the attacking fallen angel.

"That's what you said the last time!" Garasha said coldly as she took up another stance, ready to swing again.

"I know! I know! But I mean it this time!" I pleaded.

To her credit, Garasha didn't swing at me again, allowing me to explain myself first. I nodded in thanks. "I'm just here for a sword," I explained.

Garasha narrowed her eyes. "You aren't here for Man, are you?"

I shook my head. "No, for Preta if possible."

Garasha nodded slowly and lowered her stance but remained guarded. She studied me for a minute before nodding again. "Well alright. Lord Veldanava hadn't assigned it to anyone yet anyway... I suppose he'd have given it to you if you'd asked."

I blinked. "Assigned?" I aksed.

Garasha nodded and walked past me, opening the door to the castle and allowing me to stroll inside. "Yes, each one of the 6 Swords of Samsara was given to someone who served or was close to Lord Veldanava." Garasha explained.

I see. It made sense. Each one of the six swords Veldanava created were named after one of the realms of Samsara and was granted or used by someone close to him.

Deva was the personal weapon of Rudra, who was Veldanava's apprentice. It was paired with Asura, the weapon he'd intended to give to Milim, his daughter. I think Guiy ended up giving it to her in his stead or something but I can't remember. Then there was Man, representing the human realm in the Samsaran Cycle that Veldanava himself used when he was alive as a human. I believe the sword is still resting at his gravesite near his headstone at the back of the castle.

'Hurry up and revive already dude, your child hasn't seen you in almost 2,500 years!' I complained to myself before continuing with my previous thought.

Next, there was Ark. I believe that my father's first creation, Feldway used it as his personal weapon... 'I wonder whatever happened to him now that my brother is dead'... anyway! Ark was supposed to represent the animal realm and was paired with Man, which Feldway couldn't stop bragging about.

On a side note, I wasn't sure why my brother called the sword representing the Animla Realm, 'Ark', but maybe he caught a whiff of Noah's Ark from Earth's Abrahamic Faiths and borrowed the name since it's associated with animals. I'm probably wrong and it's probably the other way around or something, but I didn't let that bother me as we continued walking.

Next, there was Naraka, representing the Underworld or Hell in the cycle of Samsara. I'm pretty sure Guy currently wields this weapon, but maybe I'm wrong.

And finally, there is Preta. The only sword that wasn't assigned to anyone before big bro kicked the bucket and decided not to respawn. Considering it represented the realm of the Hungry Ghosts who are never satiated, I figured it'd be a good pair with Rimuru, given his whole 'eat things to grow stronger' gimmick.

I had thought of using it myself but decided to make my own weapon at a later date. These Swords my brother created are of the highest quality and power, however, these are all made of a material called Starheart, which is basically solidified Star Dust, and thus these swords aren't attuned to my Storm Magic.

It's still possible to use it, I just wouldn't be able to bring out my maximum potential with it. That's the exact reason why Velgryund and Velzard, my sisters, don't use swords created by my brother despite them being at the pinnacle of what is physically possible in terms of quality.

"Here you go," Garasha said, presenting Preta to me.

As I took the sword off the wall and unsheathed it, I smiled as I noticed the sheer power that seemed to radiate off of the sword. Just by weilding this, Rimuru would be at the level of a weaker True Demon Lord. Add onto that training and his already broken skills and possible evolution into the future, and he'd be above even Luminous... until I upgrade her Unique Skill into an Ultimate later this week.

I sheathed the sword and turned back to Garasha. "Thank you!" I said, honestly.

"Please leave." garasha didn't even acknowledge my thanks, just wanting me to be gone so I didn't threaten to destroy this place again.

I smiled wryly. "Alright! I'm going. I'm going!" I said as I was led out back to the courtyard.

'I'll do some research on how Veldanava made these swords and try to substitute it with my own solidified Storm Magic in the future. This is a good reference.' I thought as we exited the castle.

As I walked into the courtyard I transformed back into my Dragon Mode. I always preferred flying as a Dragon rather than a human. Something about it just sat right with me in my soul. Despite my now towering size, I made sure that I wouldn't strike any part of the castle with my body as I gently flapped my wings, using more magic to fly than aerodynamics.

I turned back to Garasha. "I already know what you're going to say, but... Want to come live with me in Jura? It'd sure be a whole heck of a lot less boring than guarding this castle." i offered.

Garasha shook her head. "I am not guarding the castle, and I wasn't assigned to this task. I do this because I wish to." She said.

I nodded. "Ah, so your guarding brother's body and weapon then... I see."

"No. I am guarding the body of Lady Lucia." Garasha explained.

My eyes went wide as she said that. "What? Why?" I asked.

Garasha smiled lightly. "I'm sure when Lord Veldanava gets back he will want to revive Lady Lucia, and I'm sure he'll appreciate that I protected and preserved her body."

I blinked again. "You're living in this castle to get away from Dino, aren't you?"

"I'm living in this castle to get away from Dino," Garasha admitted.

I threw my head back and laughed heartily "Gyah-hahahaha! Well then, I won't reveal your hiding spot and get out of your hair then." I said, turning around. "The offer still stands though, swing by anytime!" I stated as I took off back home.

I think Garasha and I will be good friends in the future.

.~.~.~.

A/N: I'm thinking of having a chapter where the MC meets his sisters early and they all forge Swords using their own Dragon Factors but I'm a bit torn on whether to go for it or not. I already have names for them too. Veldroa's Sword would, of course, be 'Tempest', Velzard's would be 'Zenith', and Velgrynd's would be 'Cardinal', but the problem is that it'd mess with the plot a bit.

Mostly since Velgrynd would 100% try to eliminate or recruit Rimuru and there is no reason for Rimuru to refuse since the Eastern Empire already has semi-modern technology, an ok stance towards monsters, and would probably allow him to retain autonomous control over the Great Forest of Jura. This is bad because Feldway and Michael are likely to discover Rimuru having [Raphael] and [Uriel] when he inevitably becomes a TDL using the souls Veldora has collected and thus succumbing to Feldway's control and since the MC doesn't have meta-knowledge as a reincarnator and as strong as Veldroa is, he can't take on Feldway, Velgrynd, TDL Rimuru, and the Imperial Knights at once, so Veldora would also end up controlled which is the bad-end route of this scenario.

Anyway, what do you guys think. Food for thought.

[Preta Image]