Child Of God

Somewhere in the city, Rayleigh sat on a bench with a drink in hand and waited for his guide.

Said guide came crashing down on the ground like a meteor strike, afterwards she struck a V-pose with a smile.

"Super powerful scary old guy! I have arrived!" Milim said loudly, scaring this whole part of the city.

"Ah, Mini, how good to see you again," Rayleigh said with a smile. He was then forced to dodge a kick from Milim that completely disintegrated the house behind him. "Now, that was unnecessary, Mini." Another kick, and another big crater created by the little demon lord.

"My. Name. Is. Milim." She hissed through her teeth.

"So it is," Rayleigh said and glanced behind him where the house used to be. "Can't take a joke, can you? You're just like Whitebeard. All too serious." He yawned and caught a kunai that came straight for his head, with the intent to impale him.

"Sir Rayleigh. Lady Milim! If you two are gonna fight, I'm gonna have to insist you take it outside our borders. We have civilians living here." Souei said as he and his entire stealth squad appeared around them. They were all dressed like traditional shinobi with subtle killing intent leaking off their body.

"He started it! He called me mini. That's not my name!" Milim had dodged the kunai by tilting her head to the side.

"A simple mistake. All is forgiven. Shall we start our adventure?" He smiled and looked at Milim.

She didn't share his enthusiasm for forgiveness. Especially since she didn't feel like she had anything to apologize for. "It's not! Tell him he has to apologize for calling me Mini." She looked toward Souei with a pout. This immediately put him in a difficult situation. He didn't wanna anger the strongest demon lord. Neither did he like the idea of going against Rayleigh.

"Yes, yes, I see my mistake now. I apologise for calling you Mini. When your name is..." Rayleigh pretended blanking again before tilting his head and said casually. "Mini?"

"AHHH!" Milim jumped at him with her magic power flared and alerting the entire city that she had lost her mind.

"Oops, maybe I took it too far." Rayleigh stopped her fist with his palm and delivered a quick chop to her neck, knocking her out cold. "Phew, that was scary." He said in a playful tone.

"After Lord Rimuru finally managed to tame her, you come along and in one day, you drive her back to her destructive ways. I don't wanna know what will happen when she wakes up." Souei was clueless on how to deal with this situation, but first and foremost, he had to report this to his Lord.

"What do we do now, master Souei?" Souka asked while looking wildly uncomfortable. 'He just knocked out the strongest Demon Lord I've ever seen. Even Lord Rimuru doesn't wanna fight her. Just where did he come from?'

"I'm not sure. Firstly I need to inform Lord Rimuru of the incoming wave of rage that will come from Milim when she wakes up. This is so bothersome." He sighed out loud. He was about to pick up Milim but he felt Rayleigh casual gaze dig into him and it froze him in place.

"I'll take care of her. If she stays here you all won't be able to stop her before she causes extreme damage to the town." His tone made it clear Souei had nothing to do with this.

'Since this is your fault, you should at least handle what will come.' He thought before saying stoically. "Understood, Sir Rayleigh. I'll go and inform Lord Rimuru of this." He performed a subtle hand sign, almost impossible to spot and his squad disappeared in a flash.

Rayleigh was left completely alone with the knocked out Milim. "That was fun. Unfortunately, I don't know if you're Knight material. I need to observe you closer." He picked her up in a princess carry with a caring smile on his face. With a tight grip on her, he disappeared.

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Milim's eyes fluttered open as she felt a comforting heat stroking against her cheek.

"Good morning, sleepy," Rayleigh said calmly as Milim sat up with a splitting headache that made her movements sluggish and rough.

"My head hurts. You're strong." She saw the fire between them that he was poking with a stick.

"Thanks, and I know. No need to remind me." He flashed a smirk.

"How long was I asleep?"

"All day. I'm not quite sure where we are now." Rayleigh looked gestured at all the trees around them. "I just kinda kept walking with you and we should be a few thousand miles away from Rimuru's city.

"Nonono, this is bad!" Milim spoke up in a panic, with sweat coming down her forehead. "I am under house arrest. Rimuru will be so mad at me!"

"Hahaha, they know I took you, they're fine with it. Just calm down and have something to eat." Rayleigh smiled.

"I don't see any food,"

"I didn't say I had any. Do I have to do everything around here? Go catch my dinner, Mini" Milim could see the disappointment in his expression.

"My name is not MINI!!"

"Yeah, yeah, I can never bother learning the name of weaklings." He shrugged it off and Milim clenched her fists but knew she couldn't win if she attacked him.

"Who are you? You don't look familiar to me and I'm very old, you know." Milim's age was a point of pride with her and she took it seriously.

"To you, I'm no one in particular. To others, I'm an essential piece in their lives. I always liked the term, drifter. I'm a drifter of the universe. Exploring places no one has yet dared to venture into."

"Ugh, you're a confusing guy! Make it easy to understand, stupid!"

"Hahaha, for someone so old, you lack surprisingly a lot of knowledge." Rayleigh chuckled lightly as he regarded Milim closer. "Maybe it's not intellect you lack. No, you certainly are very clever, what you lack, Mini is, motivation and a reason to learn. Yes, that must be it. Have you always been this strong?" He asked as he continued to aggravate the flame with his stick.

"Yeah, I think so. I can't remember, I don't like complicated things and everything you say is COMPLICATED! AND MY NAME IS NOT MINI!!" She threw a tiny pebble at his face, but that was effectively and effortlessly knocked aside by his stick.

"That must be it then. You have never needed any reason to become powerful, so you never bothered learning more about anything. You have never needed to evolve your intellect, your calculating abilities. Why bother with complicated objectives when you can punch everyone and everything to death already."

"I understood punching things. You should learn from Rimuru. He is the best person ever because he never speaks about complicated things." Milim sat and rubbed her forehead, trying to figure out if anything Rayleigh said was an insult.

"It's not complicated in the slightest, you have just never needed any form of extensive academic knowledge, so your brain intentionally complicate things because you can't see simple solutions in simple problems." Rayleigh lost the tiny smug smile that adorned his face, which he only wore to further antagonize Milim. "The world isn't as complicated as you think, Mini. Punch this, punch that. Good and evil. It's in the nature of existence to over-complicate things, believe me, I talked to the woman whos father created our existence. The world is pretty straight-forward."

"MILIM! MY NAME IS MILIM!!!" She screamed, and her hands moved at lightning speed, picking up rocks and throwing them with deadly accuracy.

"From all of that, that was the thing you chose to focus on. You need to learn to relax, Mini." Rayleigh swatted away any rock coming in arms-length of him.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Milim jumped at Rayleigh but he swatted her to the side with the back of his hand. She crashed through multiple trees and it took quite some time before she was able to stop herself.

"She's impulsive. Reckless, unconcerned about consequences. She's selfish, ignorant and naive. She's perfect!" Rayleigh spoke aloud as Milim came limping back, clearly hurt from the hit she took right to the head. Ones again, the distance in strength between them had been proven quite clearly by Rayleigh.

"Perfect for what, you meanie!" Milim sat down at her spot opposite Rayleigh on the other side of the fire pit.

"Sit down and let me tell you a tale."

"I am sitting down,"

"Hush, hush, no talking during storytime!" Rayleigh breathed in and out one time, as his gaze intensified. "I have a job opening, you want it?"

"THAT WAS THE STORY?!"

"Okay, so not so much of a story as it's more like a proposal. So, what do you say? Wanna work for me?" He said smiling.

"Nononono! Every kind of NO!"

"Come on, I'll make it worth your while." Rayleigh hit her with a subtle wink, and for whatever reason, Milim felt a chill creep up her spine.

"I don't like how that sounds."

"I can train you." He shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care. But, Rayleigh knew this is where she was most vulnerable. He knew it bothered her that he was stronger than she was. And not just a little stronger either. The distance between them was astronomical, literally. And, she knew that.

Though the offer sounded appealing, she didn't wanna work for him. "Why would I want that. Plus, I don't take orders I give them. I'm one of the strongest ever!" She flexed, trying to look intimidating.

"Oh, honey. You have no idea, have you? Let me tell you something to sweeten the deal, at the risk of my own life. I work for an organization, not much unlike the one you demon lords are apart of. This group hosts some of the most powerful beings in existence. Except a few, every one of them could destroy this world with energy to spare. I, of course, is included in that."

The fear that was starting to build up inside her could be seen on her face. "R-Really?"

"Oh yes, and not only that. Anyone who is lucky enough to get offered the chance to join me inside this group will eventually also have this level of strength."

Now, as soon as that got brough up again, the scepticism on her face surface again. "You're not just saying that so I will work for you are you?"

"No, how could I? I am not only the strongest old man in the world. I am also the most honest. Do I look like someone that would lie?" Rayleigh asked proudly, but before she could retort about how ridiculous she found that statement, he said. "Actually, don't answer that. Anyway, what say you now? Wanna come and work for me?"

"No! Rimuru also warned me of dirty old men taking advantage of people. You sound like those men." Because she was just that naive and oblivious to consequences, she didn't realise she might have doomed Rimuru Tempest and everyone who served him.

"He said that, did he. Just so you know, I'm happily married so I'm not planning on taking advantage of anyone, regardless of what. And also, why do I suddenly have the urge to go on a slaughter?" Rayleigh imagined his hands gripping around the blue-haired city leaders neck and squeezing tightly.

"Rimuru says I can't slaughter people anymore."

"What a strange girl you are, Mini. Outside of my group I haven't met many that are so enthusiastic about killing. Don't you miss it? The thrill of battle?" Rayleigh saw how Milim struggled to keep that crazy psychotic smile under control, but he could feel the longing on her face.

"I fight a lot! I've just had a break, but after some warm-up, I'll beat you down, you know!!" She punched the air loosely but unintentionally increased the amount of killing intent coming off her body.

"No matter how much you warm-up, you will still never beat me. The only way you would ever have a chance against me is if you decided to come and work for me. I'm super-human and you're just a boring ol human in comparison." He shrugged his shoulders so casually that her anger went through the roof.

"I'm not a human! I'm a demon lord. Thousand of times stronger than humans. I'll show you!" She flew up and punched a tree behind her that exploded into millions of pieces. "See that? No human could do that! I'm strong!"

"So, you punched a tree and you want me to be impressed?" Rayleigh stood up and walked over to a nearby tree and tapped it with his index finger. Milim saw how the tree exploded just like hers did. "See that? Super-human. As long as your working for Rimuru, you will always need your fist when I will only need my finger. If you want to be able to do this as well, then you need to come and work for me." He sat down with a smug smile, working to further upset her.

"I don't work for Rimuru, we are best friends."

"You should take an extra-long and hard look at yourself. You have no free will here. That boy fears your power still, even if he is not that far behind you. He knows you are a simpleton, so he manipulates you with nice words and only when he becomes stronger than you will you see that you two were never really friends."

"You're lying!!"

Rayleigh shrugged his shoulder once again. "Maybe, but how would you know? You clearly can't tell when Rimuru is lying to you, which he does a lot. And, here's the kicker, Mini. He only lies and manipulates you because you are stronger than him and he sees you as a threat to those he loves. And that's where he and I differ. I have no reason to lie to you because I am so much stronger than you." Rayleigh used his stick to further aggravate the fire. "I've given you all the facts. Everything I have said is true since as I said, I have no reason to lie to you. It's now up to you if you believe me or Rimuru. I can give you power, he can't. He will just control you until you are no longer a threat to him, and then he'll stop giving you all this attention. You'll see."

"H-He wouldn't do that..." Milim was waiting for Rayleigh to say that all of this was just one big joke.

The more time that passed by, the more sadness started to overtake her. Milim is a very old demon lord, but against the intellect of Rayleigh, she stood defenceless and vulnerable. "How would you know that? We established that you only know how to punch things, leave the thinking to me, at least until I teach you to spot liers."

"I don't know what to say anymore..." Milim had finally been defeated. Her spirit was broken. "Would Rimuru lie like that? He is my best friend."

"He was never a friend, just an ally. If you come and join me, you will get a family. And if I don't want you anymore, I won't manipulate you or disregard you for someone else to pick up, I would just kill you outright. We both like honesty, don't we? So, wouldn't you rather be on the side of someone that wouldn't ever lie to you."

"I guess so," She looked up at him as if looking for him to confirm her answer for her. She wasn't sure what to say, nor do right now. Rayleigh had managed to get too deep under her skin.

"You'll be much happier with me, you know. I'll let you rampage wherever you want, and whenever you want. Doesn't that sound better than not even being allowed to go outside your room?" He said and showed her a kind smile for the first time.

"I am only asking you to spend some time with me and see if I'm lying to you. Would you do that for me, Milim?" And just like that, he said the words that he knew would seal the deal. It took three days, but Rayleigh had found what he thought was the perfect Knight for him.

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End