In the garden of the Shin Kingdom Palace on Planet Elaria, Precious was relaxing when a system window suddenly appeared.
"Master! Master! An intruder has entered the Piratan World!"
Hearing this, Precious immediately stood up in shock.
"What?!"
Chichi, the system window, replied,
"Yes, Master. It traveled through space from another galaxy and hid underground on the planet where Yuki currently is."
Upon hearing that, Precious relaxed a little and said,
"Then Yuki will probably kill it."
Chichi immediately responded in an aggressive tone,
"Master! You shouldn't leave your responsibilities to other people!"
Precious whispered,
"When did I ever leave my responsibilities to others?"
Chichi continued,
"Yuki is currently fighting Demon King Sumaru. He's almost dead."
This surprised Precious, but he quickly ignored it and said,
"But there's nothing I can do about that. I already told Yuki that even if he was about to die, I wouldn't come to save him. He has to overcome everything himself."
Chichi answered wisely,
"Yes, I know that. But I'm not asking you to help Yuki. I'm asking you to deal with the otherworldly centipede. You created this world, so it's your responsibility to protect it."
Precious fell silent for a moment before saying,
"Yeah, but has that centipede done anything wrong? Has it destroyed anything? Has it broken the laws of the galaxy? Has it committed any evil acts that could lead this galaxy toward destruction?"
Silence.
"No, right? Then why should I kill it? Let it live in this galaxy."
Chichi forcefully replied,
"Yes, but we can't wait until it becomes evil or destroys the galaxy, can we?"
Precious became silent again before saying,
"So you're asking me to kill an innocent being?"
Chichi answered,
"How does it look innocent to you? It's a powerful monster that could become a disaster for this galaxy at any moment."
Precious sighed.
"Yeah... okay, fine. I'll go and kill it."
Chichi gave a sharp smile.
"Hm."
Flashback Ends
Back inside Sumaru's palace, the giant centipede lay dead on the ground while Precious and Yuki were talking.
Precious said,
"So... that's what happened."
Yuki nodded as if he finally understood everything.
Then Precious added,
"Well, I'm leaving now. Do your job."
He suddenly remembered something.
"Oh yeah. Here, take your sword. You forgot it in your classroom."
Using his subspace storage, Precious pulled out a black-silver sword and handed it to Yuki.
Yuki's eyes widened with excitement and emotion as he grabbed it.
"Oh! My favorite sword! Sorry, I forgot you in the classroom! You're a gift from my parents! A Nether Stone Sword... ahm... ahm..."
Yuki hugged the sword tightly.
Precious smiled and disappeared.
For a few seconds, complete silence filled the castle.
Then Sumaru slowly stepped out from behind a pillar. He pretended that nothing had happened, as if he had never been hiding in fear.
He confidently shouted,
"Ahem... so... kill this bastard!"
But nobody responded.
The castle was completely silent.
There were no demons left inside.
Every demon had either died or fled from the castle.
Only Sumaru and Yuki remained.
Hearing Sumaru's words, Yuki slowly turned toward him.
His eyes were sharp and filled with anger.
He picked up his sword and began walking toward Sumaru.
"Your knights have abandoned you. Now it's my turn to torture you."
Sumaru burst into an arrogant, evil laugh.
"Huh? Khahahahaha! You? Torture me? What a ridiculous joke! Khahaha! Not a single child would believe that!"
Yuki's anger increased.
With a heavy, furious voice he shouted,
"Grr... You'll see for yourself!"
Suddenly Yuki vanished and appeared behind Sumaru.
He swung his black-silver sword toward him.
CLANG!
A loud metallic sound echoed through the castle.
Sumaru had blocked the attack with his own sword.
"You've gotten faster, huh..."
Yuki smiled.
He disappeared again and attacked from above.
Sumaru parried.
Yuki landed on the ground to regain his balance.
Immediately, Sumaru launched a counterattack.
Instead of parrying, Yuki dodged.
Then he picked up a stone from the floor and threw it at Sumaru.
Sumaru casually sliced it apart.
"Hah! You think such a simple attack can kill me?"
But Yuki had disappeared.
Sumaru's expression changed.
"Damn. That was a distraction to hide himself."
He carefully observed every corner of the castle.
The entire place was silent.
Slowly, Sumaru moved toward a wall.
His guard was completely up.
Then he heard footsteps echoing through the castle.
Suddenly, the sound of a stone falling came from behind him.
Sumaru instantly turned around.
Nobody was there.
Then a chill ran down his spine.
"!!"
SLASH!
A sword struck his back.
"Aghh!"
Sumaru spun around.
Again, nobody was there.
"You damn coward! If you have guts, come fight me fairly!"
Footsteps echoed once more.
This time Yuki stepped out from behind a pillar on Sumaru's left side.
A calm smile rested on his face.
Holding his sword, he slowly walked toward Sumaru.
"I didn't come out because of guts. I came out because I want to fight fairly."
He smiled.
"And anyway... you're not a match for me."
Those words made Sumaru even angrier.
"AAAAH!"
"BLAZIKIN!"
He raised his hand toward the sky.
Above the broken castle ceiling, a gigantic fireball formed.
Then he launched it at Yuki.
Yuki became tense and immediately rushed toward Sumaru.
Since Sumaru was focused on controlling the fireball, he failed to notice Yuki's attack.
Yuki swung his sword.
Sumaru dodged.
However, the giant fireball disappeared.
Yuki thought,
"Damn! I can't let him use magic. If he does, I'll die. A Demon King can't be underestimated."
Then Sumaru used another spell.
"CULER BLAST!"
Tiny snow-like particles began falling from above.
One landed on Yuki's shoulder.
BOOM!
It exploded.
"Agh!"
Countless snow particles started raining from the sky.
Anything they touched exploded instantly.
Many hit Yuki.
His shirt burned apart.
Fresh blood began flowing from his wounds again.
Despite this, Yuki continued charging toward Sumaru.
He dodged as many particles as possible, but many still struck him.
Their explosions slowed him down considerably.
"Damn! He's using magic! Now I'm in danger!"
Still, Yuki kept running.
"If I land one more hit on Sumaru... agh... I'm sure he'll die!"
Suddenly Yuki jumped forward at full speed.
Snow particles continued exploding against him, but he ignored the pain.
"SUMARU!!!"
Seeing Yuki charging through the explosions shocked Sumaru.
Fear appeared on his face.
The next second—
SLASH!
Yuki's sword cut through Sumaru's neck.
The Demon King's head flew across the ground and landed far away.
Yuki collapsed onto the floor as well.
Sumaru's body fell shortly afterward.
Yuki quickly forced himself back to his feet.
Looking at the corpse, he finally relaxed.
"Finally... he's dead... ha..."
The final remnants of Sumaru's magic disappeared.
The falling snow vanished.
Standing there with an exhausted but happy smile, Yuki stared at the dead Demon King.
Suddenly—
"!"
A terrible pain exploded throughout his body.
His head felt like it was being torn apart.
"Aaaaaahhh!!"
Yuki collapsed to the ground.
The pain was so intense that he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
"AAAAAAHHH!!"
"AGGHHHH!!"
A notification sound echoed.
Ding.
A system window appeared before him.
However, the pain was so overwhelming that Yuki couldn't read it.
He could only continue screaming.
The screen displayed:
100 out of 50 missions completed.
Then the message changed.
Secret Setting Activated
The text disappeared.
A calm but robotic voice emerged from the system window:
"You are entering the KEMA Core Awakening State."