Kaito ignored the words of the arrogant man in front of him, with a quick sprint he appeared behind what used to be his head, where there seemed to be some kind of slime core?', Kaito decided to call it that.
"W-well, you are fast" said the man, somewhat nervous at not being able to detect Kaito's approach. "But even so, you cannot touch me."
Kaito ignored him again and vibrated directly through him, squeezing the core inside him, which cracked as it was crushed by the force before the slime seemed to destabilize and exploded across the room.
"Is that all?" Kaito thought, somewhat disappointed, he did not even understand what he meant about not being able to touch him.
But when he looked at his hand, he noticed it was red, as if he had touched something hot, but not too much, Kaito understood.
He was simply the typical arrogant person who obtained powers and believed himself superior to everyone despite not being that strong. In reality, even the guards' weapons outside managed to penetrate his defense, unlike this one's corrosive slime, showing that he was actually quite weak.
Kaito just shook his head, surprised by the foolish arrogance of some people.
On the other hand, seeing the scene, the rest of the Lords in the room stepped back.
Although for Kaito it took some time, for the others this happened in less than a second from the moment the slime man stopped speaking.
"H-he, he defeated Shin that easily?"
"I-impossible, his ability was top tier."
"We have to run... Kughhh!"
"As if I would let you do that" said Kaito, vibrating through the one who said that, a girl with orange hair and a fierce gaze.
Without waiting for the others to speak, he repeated the process, taking less than a minute to finish them all.
"It took me less than the previous one" said Kaito in surprise.
He expected it to be harder, but it seemed they hired weak Lords, thinking that just because they had abilities they were better than normal people.
However, despite finishing here, Kaito did not go upstairs, instead he went behind the stairs and struck hard.
What should have been wood, instead of breaking, dented as a metallic sound rang out.
Kaito struck several times at the same spot, only managing to dent the wall, still unable to truly damage it.
"Why do I even bother?" Kaito sighed before simply passing through it by vibrating.
On the other side there was a typical safe room, with nothing but a bed and cameras showing the entire house.
But more important than all that, of course, was a person.
A tall man with dark hair and soft features, the kind of person who seems kind and dignified at the same time, at least when he tries, and right now he was not trying at all.
"D-don't kill me, I had nothing to do with this, I swear" said Seiryu Shinomiya, kneeling on the floor while begging, terrified at seeing Kaito enter his hiding place.
"Who are you?" Kaito asked with disdain.
"Seiryu!" he said immediately as if he had seen hope. "I am Seiryu Shinomiya, you must have heard of me, I am a good person who treats everyone kindly, I swear I had nothing to do with kidnapping Hayasaka, it was all Oko's idea, that idiot!"
Kaito looked at him with disdain, not believing a word, even so he did not kill him, he decided to use him first to obtain information.
He slowly walked to the side and took the chair from the desk where all the cameras were visible, sitting down in a relaxed manner.
Seiryu only looked at him in fear, not knowing what he should do.
"So, Seiryu, explain to me what is happening" said Kaito.
Seiryu immediately started talking, saying everything he knew, although of course omitting anything he himself had done.
In summary, Hayasaka, who was originally supposed to be a spy placed next to Kaguya by his older brother, Oko Shinomiya, stopped telling him everything.
Oko discovered she was lying, but instead of getting angry, he became curious.
What could make someone raised and trained to obey dare to rebel, what was her confidence based on?
Using a special item they obtained from Gaia called the mirror of truth, they asked exactly that.
And the answer they obtained was, of course, Lucifer.
But more than that, the mirror revealed the specific relationship between Lucifer and Hayasaka.
That was where everything began. Oko, someone who always wanted to climb even higher than he already was, offered this information to the government in exchange for entering the rumored supernatural side of the world.
The government accepted immediately and decided to set a trap for Lucifer.
While Kaito was here fighting to try to rescue Ai, they would take care of his territory. After all, to deal with a Lord it is not necessary to kill him, it is enough to destroy the core of that Lord's territory.
With the Shinomiya family acting as bait, Oko knew this would likely severely damage the foundations of generations of the Shinomiya family, but he did not care as long as he could ascend further.
"So they are attacking over there, huh? Is that not useless if I simply return?" Kaito asked, pretending he did not know they would attack there, just to find out what made them think he would not return.
"T-that... the government has something, it prevents you from returning to Gaia within the next twenty four hours, it activated once you entered range" said Seiryu.
Kaito frowned upon hearing this.
When he tried, he realized that indeed, he could not enter Gaia no matter how much he tried.
"It seems I will have to trust them for this" Kaito murmured.
Coincidentally, not long ago the system had told him he greatly underestimated his subordinates, this was a good moment to discover their level.
"Do you know how to deactivate it?" Kaito asked without much hope.
"N-no, I have no idea" Seiryu denied.
"As expected" Kaito was not surprised.
"So... I told you everything I know, can I leave?"
"I am curious" said Kaito upon hearing this, looking at Seiryu with interest and disdain in equal parts.
"You know about my relationship with Ai and you know Kaguya is Shinigami, right? Then you know I maintain at least basic contact with her.
So, why do you think I would let you go?" Kaito was genuinely curious, after all, while an outsider might have been deceived by Seiryu and his reputation, anyone with a close relationship with Kaguya would know the truth.
"I-I don't know what she told you, but it is a lie.
Kaguya has been useless since she was little, just a family outcast, if you let me follow you, I can be much more useful than that bi..."
He did not finish speaking, as Kaito had already pierced his heart.
"What a load of nonsense" he complained as he left the room.
However, at the same time he felt that something was wrong, whether it was the arrogant Lords from before who thought they could defeat him or Seiryu, who thought he would spare his life simply because of his disdain toward Kaguya and believing himself superior, it seemed they were being carried away too much by their emotions.
Of course, it could just be their personality, but Kaito did not believe it was that simple.
"Maybe this is more than just a simple kidnapping by a family that wanted to rise at any cost."
During the following minutes, Kaito advanced with ease up to the fifth floor.
As if it were a dungeon, each floor had stronger Lords than the previous one. In reality, Kaito had no idea how strong they were, since their attacks never managed to harm him and he killed them in one hit, but the increasingly larger and more refined visual effects made him assume it.
Likewise, on each floor he encountered two or three normal but extremely arrogant elders, some spoke about how they controlled Japan and he could not kill them, others about how karma would come, and one even said he would spare his life if he submitted to him, when Kaito refused, the old man used abilities even weaker than the Lords on the first floor before dying in one hit.
"Something is definitely wrong" said Kaito already on the fifth floor.
The abilities of the Lords here caused considerable destruction, so there was no longer even a ceiling and everything was surrounded by ruins.
Kaito moved a large piece of ceiling that was in front of a pair of doors and opened them.
There he found the current head of the Shinomiya family, Gan'an Shinomiya, a man with black hair like most of the family, combed back.
He was simply standing with his back to the door, looking out a window, drinking wine from a glass. Upon seeing Kaito arrive, he sat down and swirled the wine a few times before speaking.
"Yes, this is getting ridiculous" Kaito complained mentally, seeing what looked like an exaggerated cliché.
"Shut up" said Kaito without even listening to what he was saying, something about how old and special the wine was.
He immediately released his aura completely, focusing it entirely on him.
"Tell me exactly what has happened in the last two weeks."
"And why would I...?"
"Shut up and speak" Kaito insisted, already annoyed with the strange behavior of everyone here.
To his surprise, Gan'an did not seem intimidated, in fact, all the fear his body had shown before disappeared completely.
He sat completely straight and smiled, with a smile that did not fit his body at all.
"So you noticed, huh?" said "Gan'an" in a strange tone, softer and amused.
"What is it then, mind control?" Kaito asked, recognizing that he was not speaking to Gan'an but to the one responsible for the strange behavior of the Shinomiya.
"Not exactly. Rather, I amplified their emotions" the voice replied.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)