[Book 2] That time I got reincarnated as a slime,no, a DRAGON?

CH-24

Rimuru's POV

"Right. Let me explain that as well. The reason many Gods want to create new Gods is to gain more power. As I had said, to become more powerful, Gods want to absorb the world core of different worlds. But, all out fighting between two or more worlds would just start another war spanning centuries and causing damage and casualty in the multitudes of quadrillions or even more.

So, to prevent that, a solution was decided. To hold fights between representative Gods of worlds. There are two worlds, the attackers and the defender. The attackers may challenge a world, but they have a right to decline. But, once every decade, each world can use their special right which forced the defending works to fight.

The fight has wagers on it, decided by both the sides in advance. The wager can be anything. From small things like resources and information to important things such as the land of that world, or even the world core." Veldanava explained.

"Wait. Aren't there many other worlds out there without any gods? Why not just absorb them?" Dagruel asked.

"Hmph. You don't understand, do you? If even one of the gods attacks an undefended world, all hell will break loose. All the Gods will begin a new frenzy to absorb as many world cores as possible. Many might even target world cores of other Gods. It will be no different that starting an all out war between all the Worlds." Masayuki, or rather Rudra, said in a haughty manner.

But what he said wasn't wrong. All hell really will break loose if things were to go as Dagruel suggested.

"How exactly are we supposed to fight?" It was Guy who asked this.

"That's a good question. There are a few different types of battle. There is a 1v1, a 5v5 and a 20v20.

A 1v1 , as the name suggests, has one member to represent their respective world and fight.

A 5v5 has a group of 5 from each side fight each other. The side which has all of their members neutralized or killed will lose.

A 20v20 on the other hand is much different. Each side forms 4 groups of five people each. These groups fight in a tag team battle with fluid rules decided right before the match. Obviously, only fifth or sixth era Gods can participate in this, so not all worlds have 20 gods to participate. Even in that case, they are forced to fight, even if they are not twenty. This puts them at an obvious disadvantage. Obviously, i suggest that you guys make your respective groups. After all, your groups can't change once decided, so give it a lot of consideration." Veldanava said.

I looked around and quickly arranged us in groups.

"If that's the case, then I believe only 3 groups can be made.

Group 1:- Me, Ciel, Veldora, Chloe, Luna
Group 2:- Guy, Velzard, Milim, Velgrynd, Rudra
Group 3:- Ruminas, Leon, Dagruel, Dino, Ramiris"

Everyone was surprised when I stated Luna's name. They turned and looked at her with surprise. After all, nobody had noticed her till now.

Luna, in turn, could only smile and greet everyone.

"Hoh? That's an interesting distribution. Why did you go with such a distribution of power?" Veldanava asked.

"Well, it's simple. Ciel and I always work in pair, so there's no other way than us two being in the same group. Then there's Veldora. I can use his vast magicules much better than anyone else. Also, it's better for him to be with me than his sisters. That leaves two spots, but we really cannot divide ourselves into rearguard or Vanguard anymore. So, that leaves only Chloe, who can fight alone as well.

For group 2, it's obvious that as partners guy and Velzard as well as Ma-, Rudra and Velgrynd would have exceptional chemistry. Milim, who is Rudra's niece and somewhat akin to a sister to Guy could bring them together.

For group 3, both Dino and Dagruel have been friends for a long time and are the Vanguard. Leon, specialising in holy magic would provide good support and would act as a rearguard. Meanwhile, Ruminas would focus on healing and support as well. Ramiris, would create a labyrinth, if possible, and give us the territorial advantage.

This leaves us with one open spot in group 1 and only 1 candidate, Luna." I explain my reasoning.

As everyone started to think, nobody rebuked the group divisions that I can't with.

"Well, I guess that's fine. Usual you have to fight 1v1 or 5v5 at most. Doing a 20v20 while your opponent only had 15 members will surely smear dirt on their name, so I doubt anyone will do it." Veldanava stated.

" Alright. Take this." He said as he gave us some coordinates. The coordinates were for two places.

"The first one is a library. You guys can read and learn more there. As for the second one, it has records of previous battles of gods. You guys can review them and improve your fighting style." Veldanava said.

I looked at the coordinates and it surprised me. Usually coordinates have 3 numbers corresponding to each axis, that is the x,y and z axes, yet these had 4 separate numbers. The first number was separated from the other three.

'I see. This is truly interesting. Many people earlier also thought of it. That there was a different co-ordinate for different worlds. This more or less proves that they were right.' Ciel told me via thought communication.

'So? Can we teleport there?' i ask.
'Of course we can. Who do you think you are talking to?' Ciel said in a smug tone.

The meeting then continued. We talked about various things, but the atmosphere slowly became less serious.

Tia's POV

Shit. This isn't how things were supposed to go. We will be returning to Ingrassia tomorrow, and there is yet to be any major devlopment. I couldn't even recognise any capture targets. What the hell is this shitty game?

"Tia-sama. Shouldn't you prepare for tomorrow's departure?" A girl said.
"That's right you can't be late for tomorrow, Tia-sama."

I look around to see two girls behind me. One of them who had long hair and a slender build with breasts slightly bigger than me was Maria, while the one with short trimmed hair and uh, well, not so developed breasts was Marie.

Both of them are monsters who are following me? Why? Because they know it is better to serve me. I was able to get a lot of information because of them. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get either Ria or Liscia to help me out. With this, is getting more and more difficult to do what I want.

To add salt to the injury, my skills were revealed before the entire populace. Now there are rumours going around that i had used by skill to corrupt them, which isn't exactly wrong. So I am quite trouble with what to do.

"You are right. Let's prepare to leave." I said before signalling the two to follow me.

3rd Person POV

As Tia left the room, not Marie and Maria made a disgusted smile, bahut masking it immediately and following after Tia.

Unbeknownst to Tia, she was dancing right in the hands of Marie and Maria. After all, those two aren't ordinary children. Those two are the descendants of shadow squad that was under Souei. As such, they were taught from a young age how to assassinate, use and take advantage of idiots like her. They were even willing to go as far as risk their lives to fulfill a mission, especially if it came from Ciel herself.

----------------------------

I hope you guys like it.