Although when Kaito asked about how the battle turned out, he did not expect to end up uncovering a conspiracy involving gods guiding the course of the world, there was really nothing he could do about it for now.
Still, it did not sound bad.
Well, being treated as a character for someone else's growth made Kaito feel somewhat annoyed, but even so, it did not sound like a bad plan.
After all, based on what he knew so far, these so called gods, the beings behind Gaia, did not have any evil objective or anything like that, they even aligned with Kaito's goals.
Even the suggestion did not truly control him, it simply guided his actions toward a specific objective, something so subtle that even now, years after getting rid of that suggestion, Kaito still could not notice any difference in his behavior.
This was good, it meant that unlike a typical protagonist, he did not need to fight all the powerful beings for no reason or challenge the heavens. Without holding any grudge against them, Kaito did not plan to fight them just to dominate everything, be the only one at the top or any similar nonsense.
Of course, knowing that someone else besides him was planning to save the multiverse did not make him stop striving toward that goal.
Mainly for three reasons.
The most important one was that he had already promised Koneko to save and avenge her world, so he would not back down.
The second was that he did not know if their plan would succeed, so he could not leave everything in their hands.
And finally, but no less important, this involved both his life and the lives of all the people close to him, even if Kaito were 100 percent sure that the gods' plan would work, he would still do everything he could on his side as well.
As for speaking with these gods or trying to understand their plans better, Kaito was not qualified at the moment, so all he could do was keep growing until he could.
After thinking all this through in what, for the others, was just a brief blank moment from Kaito, he added two things to his to do list.
Number 1: Remove the psychological suggestion from all his subordinates somehow.
Number 2: Try to find the protagonist of this world.
After that, Kaito spent about ten minutes explaining all this to the others, showing all the evidence and facts that formed the puzzle of his theory, until he finally convinced them.
"So we are just characters in a story?"
"Do they guide all our actions?"
"Is there any way to break free from this?"
Everyone had already gone through many things over the past years, despite looking like teenagers, they were all already experienced adults in this world, so beyond some surprise, everything about the gods, guiding the world or a protagonist did not affect them too much.
The only thing that truly affected them was whether they could free themselves from that control.
"As for that, it connects to the next topic of discussion" Kaito said, having an idea of how to remove the suggestion. "Kaguya, what exactly happened to you and what did you do to me?"
Kaguya, sitting to the side with her legs crossed, smiled confidently upon hearing the question, having been waiting for it.
"Finally my turn.
Honestly, it all started three days ago" Kaguya said, beginning to recount a story that seemed like she had prepared long ago.
"When I was about to receive my reward from the last world, I was given two options, one included multiple rewards, while the other was a single higher tier one, however, due to a lack of synchronization points, that reward was not available.
After asking everyone for points, I chose the second option, immediately entering a state of semi unconsciousness, where I could barely hear what was happening outside.
My body began to evolve, entering a state of constant destruction and rebirth, however, when the process finally ended, I did not wake up immediately.
Thanks to the Gaia system, which lets you know everything about the abilities you obtain, I understood what was happening.
Apparently, although my body had already evolved, to start functioning, you could say, it needed something else, it needed death, not death energy, not death magic, death in the literal sense.
Searching for death, my body constantly released death energy that would kill anyone who touched it. Fortunately, Mashiro contained this energy, preventing casualties. Thank you for that, by the way" she interrupted her story to give a slight bow of gratitude toward Mashiro, who simply nodded in return.
"Thanks to that, a tragedy was avoided, since the energy required to awaken was equivalent to tens of thousands of deaths of normal people, and even if they were people with abilities, it would still require thousands.
This state lasted two days, when the energy suddenly became unstable, like sharks that smell blood, the most delicious blood that has ever existed" she emphasized at the end.
"When Mashiro could no longer maintain the shield, it was released. And it headed toward the target it had detected before, a target powerful enough to replace thousands of people with abilities.
That was Kaito dying, of course..."
"You died?"
"Are you okay?"
"Why didn't you tell me that...?"
Kaguya's narration was interrupted by several female voices that looked at Kaito with concern.
Kaito could only smile helplessly, since he himself did not yet know what had happened.
"I am fine, do not worry, let's finish listening."
Kaito received several suspicious looks, but in the end, no one said anything.
"Then" Kaguya continued, "Kaito's death was more powerful than anything, so the energy absorbed his death immediately. In reality, Kaito should not still be alive, since my energy can only absorb death, meaning it would require Kaito to be dead. But apparently, the attack Kaito received was special, it was not an instant death, it was killing him piece by piece, so the energy absorbed the death of those parts and Kaito's body simply healed on its own thanks to his abilities.
After that I woke up, no longer as a Shinigami, but as the special race 'Original Demon: Death'. I do not know much about this race yet, but it has very powerful abilities based on death.
For example, the death of my body is completely under my control, as long as I do not allow it, I will not die no matter what.
Of course, although this is basically immortality, it does not make me invincible.
From what I understand, I am a conceptual being, if more powerful concepts or opposing concepts attacked me, I could die, although, as far as I understand, death is the first concept and the most powerful of all, so I only need to worry about opposites.
Besides that, any being whose power is inferior to mine, no matter what kind of abilities, artifact or defense they have, can die with a single touch from me.
As for stronger ones, I still have to fight normally.
On top of that, I have a domain, its range, power, duration and cooldown all depend on my strength, with its weakest effect being killing everything within its range and its strongest being killing reality itself within that space, preventing anything from happening there from that point onward, it is like literally erasing that space from reality.
Of course, besides the most noticeable abilities, there are many smaller ones, among them, as long as the target allows it, I can kill anything inside the person I touch.
It was while I was absorbing the death inside your body that I saw your soul for a moment and noticed a strange barrier that seemed to suppress your power, so I killed it, I did not expect that to make you evolve and become as strong as me, what a shame, I was only stronger than you for a few minutes."
'I am sure you are still stronger than me' Kaito complained internally, even with both being rank 2 demons, Kaito definitely could not defeat Kaguya right now.
Of course, Kaguya could not kill Kaito either, after all, with his current domain, death could not penetrate his body, it was not an exaggeration to say that Kaito's body was completely impenetrable right now.
Leaving Kaito's thoughts aside, the entire room was in total silence, staring at Kaguya with wide eyes.
Although Kaguya did not say it explicitly, her proud and confident expression clearly showed she enjoyed the attention.
Their reactions were not surprising, since Kaguya's abilities were beyond common sense.
Imagine Kaguya transforming into her Shinigami mode and cloning herself like before, you cannot touch her, but if she touches you, you die instantly.
Flight speed is much higher than someone running, so Kaito could already imagine Kaguya wiping out an entire army with ease, after all, even if the requirement to survive her touch is being stronger than her, that is still extremely difficult.
"Alright, it seems you are a real monster, huh?" Kaito said helplessly, if Kaguya had not chosen to submit on her own, there would be no way to force her. "By the way, since you killed two hundred fifty thousand people, what about the rewards?"
"Ah" at Kaito's question, Kaguya's proud expression immediately disappeared as she let out a disappointed groan.
"What happened?"
"Well, apparently... my death is too powerful, closer to the end of existence than to death itself... so..."
"It affects objects too?" Kaito guessed.
"Yes. I cannot control it very well right now, so more than three quarters of the rewards disappeared. Of course, I mean objects and abilities, as for experience, I gained 3.25 trillion, which raised me to level 86."
'And you still say you are not stronger than me?' Kaito really wanted to complain out loud, but kept it to himself, on the other hand, there was another part that interested him.
"Objects?" he asked with interest, as far as he knew, people did not drop items.
"There are special system items that always drop" Kaguya explained, understanding his doubt, after all, at early levels it is not common for someone to have those kinds of items, and it had been a while since Kaito last killed a Lord in Gaia.
That was because most of those remaining in the black forest were extremely weak, there was no reason for Kaito to deal with them personally.
"As for abilities, I got quite a lot, around a thousand, but most are basic and weak things. If I had fusion like you, maybe they would be more useful" Kaguya lamented.
Abilities only drop from those who are at least at the top of their server, which already reduces the number, if you add that she lost most of them and that dropped abilities are always weaker than the original, Kaguya ended up with a lot of nearly useless skills.
Of course, even if they are weak, the sheer variety still makes them somewhat useful. In the future, Kaito will get used to Kaguya always having a skill for whatever is needed, but that is still some time away.
"But if we are talking about items, this is the best thing I got, it will be quite useful for you" she said while taking out eight scrolls from her inventory and handing them to Kaito.
[Race Evolution Scroll: Deadly Sin - Envy
Description: Since the beginning of time, every Demon King has been accompanied by his seven subordinates, The Deadly Sins, those capable of corrupting others through their deepest desires.
Effect, using it transports you to The Trial of Sin, if you overcome it, your race will evolve into 'Deadly Sin: Envy'
Note, the eight scrolls (7 Deadly Sins and Demon King) are linked, if one is activated, the rest will activate as well.]
[Race Evolution Scroll - Demon King
Description: Since the beginning of time, corrupting all other beings through their deepest desires, there were The Seven Deadly Sins, and above them existed the Demon King.
Effect: Using it transports you to The Trial of Sin, if you overcome it, your race will evolve into 'Demon King'
Note: The eight scrolls (7 Deadly Sins and Demon King) are linked, if one is activated, the rest will activate as well. If activated when they are not distributed among eight participants, the most suitable one will be automatically selected as Demon King and the most suitable ones will be selected for each sin.]
[It has been detected that you already possess the class 'Demon King' and that your race is superior and unchangeable. You may choose whether to participate in the trial or not. You are automatically designated as 'Demon King' of this scroll game.]
Besides these two, there were five more, but they said the same as the envy one, just with the other sins.
There were six sin scrolls, as Gluttony was missing, but Kaito wasn't too surprised. The possibility that not all of them were present was much higher anyway, and the fact that almost all of them were already there except for one was already an unnatural level of luck.
Kaito looked at the others in the room, aside from Mashiro, the obvious sloth, he was not sure how to distribute them.
If Kaguya had not already evolved, he would have given her greed, for the classic trope of rich people who do not value what they have and long for freedom. But with her already having a superior race, and not knowing who to give the rest to, he simply decided to keep them for now while he thought about it.
"Alright, thanks for this" Kaito nodded, thanking her for the scrolls before looking at the others. "What about your levels? For the second evolution you need to be level thirty, has anyone reached it?"
"Actually..."
To Kaito's surprise, everyone had already reached level 30, except Arima and Kaori. But thinking about it, it made sense, after all, they killed quite a few Lords in the last battle, and considering the time, they were already quite close from before.
'I will have to decide quickly who to give them to' Kaito thought.
With all that settled, he moved to the final topic.
"So you can remove the suggestion from everyone, right?" he asked, remembering her ability to kill anything inside the body of those she touches as long as she has permission.
"Definitely" Kaguya nodded, already prepared for it.
"Do it, I will be gone for a while" Kaito said and disappeared.
Before Kaguya could complain about how sudden it was, she heard Kaito return and leave her a message.
"By the way, you are already forgiven, remove your punishments yourself."
Kaguya stayed confused for a moment before smiling happily.
...
After just a few seconds, Kaito was in the guild territory.
He might seem in a hurry, but Kaito really wanted to finish this matter quickly, so he decided to talk to Makima right away to hear the rest of the explanations and at least, for now, consider this matter closed.
Before entering the guild, Kaito had already changed his appearance, although his hair had turned red earlier due to what happened in the mansion, his evolution turned it black again.
This allowed him to change his appearance without having red hair, which was good since, although not a definitive trait, it was somewhat suspicious.
Now, with blond hair and a tanned, well built body, Kaito looked like a typical playboy, no one who saw him would associate him with Lucifer or Kaito.
Of course, his arrival still attracted attention due to his somewhat suspicious appearance.
Ignoring the looks and murmurs around him, Kaito walked to the reception, where, out of all the usual receptionists, only one was present.
'Looks like they are quite busy' Kaito thought, although the reason was obvious.
"Excuse me."
"Y-yes?" The receptionist, who seemed busy checking several papers while typing on the computer at the same time, reacted startled at Kaito's call, but quickly recovered.
"I need to see Makima."
"Miss Makima? She is a bit busy right now, I can help you if you would allow me..."
"That is not necessary, I have an appointment with her. Call her" Kaito interrupted.
"I u-understand, I will go right away" under a bit of pressure, along with his current appearance, Kaito easily convinced the receptionist.
Once the receptionist left, Kaito sat on a nearby waiting bench, took out his console and began interacting with the Ninja world, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)