"Oh, it's over" Kaito, now alone once again, muttered as he looked at his body when the skill ended.
'So "Reflection" can do that, it's pretty useful' he thought before complaining, 'I can feel my head full again, it's pretty annoying.'
Seconds later, at several times the speed of sound, he landed directly on the sacred tree of the Fairy King's Forest.
He looked around in surprise, the forest already looked almost completely restored, the burned trees had returned to normal and the fairies moved around calmly.
"Kaito, you're only one person again!" Diane exclaimed when she saw him return as a single person instead of two.
"Yeah, looks like my limit is one day."
"Good thing it's over, having two Kaitos was really weird."
"Was it that strange?" Kaito asked, having already seen many things far stranger, he did not find it that weird.
"Completely" King agreed while landing in front of him.
Beside him were Elaine and Ban, Ban in particular looked extremely uncomfortable because he had to be carried by Elaine since he could not fly, while she only smiled in amusement.
"So you're done with everything already?"
"It's finished, don't underestimate the legacy of the Fairy King's Forest, after existing for thousands of years, leaving for a few days is nothing."
"Speaking of leaving for a few days" Ban spoke up, "King told us that whole story and honestly I don't believe it, but it's true that even if it's a lie I only have to follow you for a few days without losing anything, so I'll do it.
Even so, in the unlikely case that it's true, remember one thing, I'm not a hero. Since you saved me and that thing could have saved many others, I'll follow you, but that's all, I'll follow orders, don't expect me to sacrifice myself for others on my own or anything like that."
"Don't worry, I won't ask you to do anything like that."
"As long as you understand" Ban nodded while shrugging.
"Right! Take this" King said while throwing him a golden bracelet.
"And this is?"
"Just use magic on it and you'll see."
As soon as Kaito did what King told him, the bracelet disappeared, transforming into a huge green pillow.
"So, what do you think? It's what you wanted for your girlfriend in the other world, right?"
Kaito nodded in satisfaction and withdrew his magic, the pillow disappeared and transformed back into the golden bracelet on his arm.
"It's perfect."
"You have a girlfriend? But I thought you were dating Diane?"
At Elaine's sudden question full of curiosity, Kaito frowned, already guessing what was coming.
"Hahaha, that's right, Elaine, listen to this..." King began speaking with a grin that showed how much he was enjoying this, but Kaito did not let him continue.
"Yeah, we're not repeating that" Kaito sighed.
Like whips, four threads of mana came out from his hands and wrapped around everyone there like a net. The next second, Kaito flew away with a sonic boom and the mana threads, which turned into domes around each person at the end, dragged everyone along with him.
Normally this would not be visible, but Elaine and King had high magical sensitivity and could see it.
Of course, it did not help them at all. Before Elaine could even raise her hand with the intention of pointing it out and asking what he was doing, they were already kilometers away from their previous location and the ground beneath them looked like a blurry stain while they moved at incredible speed.
"W-what speed is this?" Elaine muttered in disbelief.
"Enough for you to die if I wasn't protecting you" Kaito answered.
"Hey, isn't this guy insanely strong?" Ban asked, equally shocked, earning an excited response from Diane.
"Right? I was surprised too. He doesn't act at all like some overpowered person, so when he suddenly does things like this it catches you off guard."
"He beat me easily while using Chastiefol's true form, he's a complete monster" King added.
"You're talking about the true form of the Spirit Spear, the one rumored in ancient records?" Elaine asked.
"That one exactly" King nodded.
Elaine fell silent, not knowing how to react to that.
Her gaze lowered while her thoughts raced. Somehow, her thoughts ended up matching the ones Ban was having.
'Did we even have the option to refuse from the start?'
"Of course not" King mocked after guessing what they were thinking, earning resentful looks from both of them.
"We're here."
Kaito interrupted them before they could start arguing.
The group looked around, only now noticing that at some point they had already landed without any discomfort at all. The movement had been incredibly smooth the entire time, making them realize that Kaito not only possessed monstrous speed but also complete control over it.
"What is this place?" Elaine asked.
"Danafor."
"Danafor? The Kingdom of Danafor? What are we doing here?" Ban asked, the only one who recognized the place, at least by name.
"Didn't I tell you before? We came for one of the two new members of the group" Kaito answered naturally.
"Seriously? Here? You already have a giant, a former Fairy King, a Fairy Queen and an immortal. Is there really someone here who can compare?" Ban asked.
"Compare?" Kaito mocked his words with disdain. "They could beat all of you at once."
"That strong? Is there really someone like that in a small kingdom like Danafor?" Ban asked, impressed.
Before Kaito could answer, a knight appeared in front of them completely covered in armor.
"Stop! I don't recall Danafor having any business with the Giant Clan or the Fairy's Forest. State your purpose."
"Huh?" Ban exclaimed in annoyance before speaking with disdain after seeing the knight's small stature. "We're just visitors, what's the problem?"
"Visitors? With that level of magic? Yeah, right" the knight replied with the same level of mockery.
"Even if he's the Fairy King, there's still no reason to stop us like this, right? Is this your country's security?" Ban shot back irritably.
"Fairy King?" the knight repeated before looking at Ban with such disdain that he could feel it despite not seeing his face. "What are you? Some kind of peasant who got mixed into the group by accident? Of course someone at that level can't just enter another kingdom without explanations, not to mention that aside from you, everyone in this group feels just as dangerous."
"Alright, I'm tired of you already."
Fed up, Ban rushed toward the knight to fight him.
King looked at Ban as if he were watching an idiot.
"Elaine, your new boyfriend just started fighting a knight from another country just because he was doing his job. I guess that's normal for bandits?"
"Ban already left that life behind, okay?" Elaine replied. "He just got angry, he just became immortal and got carried away with pride."
While they spoke, Ban was thrown back toward them with a single hit.
"That was a warning. As a royal knight of Danafor, I am allowed to kill you if I see you as a threat" the knight said.
"Hey, Ban, stop before the situation..."
"You bastard!" Ban roared while charging straight at the knight again.
"...gets worse" King finished while slapping his forehead with his palm.
"I warned you" the knight said calmly before drawing his sword and stabbing Ban through the heart.
"Arghhh! Damn it, that hurts, hurts, hurts like hell!" Ban screamed in pain, but to his killer's surprise, he remained alive even after screaming in agony for three whole minutes.
Swiiiing!
The knight pulled out his sword, watching as the wound through Ban's heart healed in seconds.
"Regeneration?... No" the knight denied while looking at King and Elaine behind him. "Immortality."
He stepped forward and struck the panicked Ban's head with all his strength, Ban having just experienced death for the first time since drinking from the Fountain of Youth.
The force made the head of a normal and barely trained human like Ban explode instantly.
The knight merely observed the scene with interest.
"Why would fairies give the Fountain of Youth to an ordinary human like you? Have the fairies gone insane?" he wondered before kicking Ban so hard that Ban's body split in half.
"Ban!" Elaine cried out in horror as she watched her beloved basically being tortured.
Meanwhile, King only kept watching him as if he were an idiot.
"Incredible, now the whole world knows the fairies gave their greatest treasure to a human. What do we do now?" King asked while shifting his gaze from the brutal beating toward Kaito.
"Don't worry, nobody heard anything, didn't you notice?" Kaito replied.
At his words, King looked around, noticing that just as Kaito said, nobody had heard anything... because nobody was there.
"When did everyone leave? Are we really that scary?" he wondered for a second before quickly rejecting the idea after realizing the reason. "No, it was because of him" he said while looking at the knight in front of them.
"Could it be we accidentally ran into someone important?" Elaine asked.
"And about what to do now, that depends" Kaito continued. "I can stop the fight, or you can all fight him for a while too, it would probably help you improve in combat."
Kaito was sincere when he proposed it, thinking about the growth of King and Diane's strength.
But the moment he said it, both of them looked at him and shook their heads.
"No, since you're talking like that, he must be our new companion, right?" King asked, although he already knew the answer.
"Yeah, why would I want to get beaten up?" Diane agreed without any intention of fighting.
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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)