"I guess if you don't want to, there's nothing I can do about it" Kaito shrugged before stepping forward and stopping the 'fight' between Ban and Meliodas.
"That's enough Ban, stop"
""Hey, don't interrupt our fight"" both of them said at the same time.
"A fight, seriously?" Kaito questioned, although he wasn't surprised by Ban, he was surprised that Meliodas considered it one too.
"Are you his boss or something?" Meliodas asked after noticing Kaito's aura and everyone else's attitude toward him.
"Something like that"
"Good, let me fight him a little longer. He's incredible, even though he sucks in battle, his reckless style where he doesn't care about his own life makes him fun, every time he heals he gets stronger and improves his skills a little" Meliodas said with great interest.
"Really?"
"Yeah, although only a little, around 1%"
"Wouldn't he have to die many times before becoming entertaining then?"
"I see, I see, you're right, but don't worry, I could kill him thousands of times in minutes" Meliodas said after realizing it.
"Then have fun" Kaito shrugged, Ban becoming stronger was useful to him anyway.
...
Hours later, at sunset, Ban lay on the ground, unable to get up despite being completely healthy, simply because he was mentally exhausted.
Meliodas approached him and held out a hand to help him up.
"Man, you're incredible" Ban said while taking his hand and standing up. "Even after a whole day I couldn't force you to get serious"
"Hahaha, I'm way too strong for you to manage that, but fighting you was great" Meliodas laughed.
"You'll see, in a few years I'll be as strong as you"
"You can try" Meliodas nodded.
"What the hell just happened?" Diane wondered after watching that whole spectacle.
"Friendship through punches, men only" Liz replied.
"I'm a man too, you know? And I didn't understand any of that" King complained.
"With that body...a real man should be muscular and fight with his fists"
"Hah? I don't need flashy muscles, my Chastiefol can handle everything. I bet I could even beat that battle addicted knight"
"Beat my boyfriend? You? Hahahaha" Liz started laughing so hard that even Meliodas heard her.
"Liz? What are you doing here? When did you arrive?"
"What am I doing here? You've been gone all day! The whole city is saying a dangerous group appeared and then you disappeared, of course I came looking for you"
"See? You were worried about me, don't worry, I'll make it up to you tonight" the moment Meliodas heard her, he smiled pervertedly and hugged her, clinging to her like an octopus, earning himself a hit to the head from Liz.
"Don't do that in public, pervert. Besides, even if he survived this time because he's immortal, how can you try to kill someone accompanying the Fairy King?"
"Come on Liz, you're too harsh" Meliodas complained while holding the spot on his forehead where she hit him. "And don't worry about political problems, from now on, this is my new friend Ban, what do you say he and his group have dinner with us tonight?"
"Are you sure? They seem like a dangerous group"
"Come on, how dangerous could they be? They can't beat me anyway hahaha. Ban, what do you think?"
"As long as there's beer, I'll be there"
"Then it's decided"
With that, Ban and Meliodas threw their arms over each other's shoulders and started walking together through the city streets.
"I'm sorry for my partner's behavior" Liz apologized before examining the strange group with her gaze. "But even so, I'd like to know what your objective is"
"I came to invite your boyfriend to serve me" Kaito replied naturally.
"...My boyfriend?" Liz asked, doubting what she had heard.
"Yes"
"Pffft hahaha" Liz immediately started laughing again.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful" she apologized after a while while wiping the tears from her eyes. "It's just, my boyfriend is a royal knight, and the best in all of Danafor, why would he serve under you?"
"Well, I'm not actually interested in the royal knight Meliodas" Kaito said. "I'm interested in the Demon Prince Melio..."
Bang!
Before he could finish speaking, Meliodas was already in front of him, his sword pointed directly at his neck.
When Kaito's hand stopped the sword without any problem, Meliodas' other hand used all its strength to punch Kaito in the chest.
But Kaito caught his hand with his palm, creating a huge explosion from the force of both of them that echoed throughout the area and forced everyone to cover themselves.
With Meliodas not holding back, and still not restricting his demonic power because of the Danafor incident, his strength ranked at the absolute top in human territory, so his blows were on another level as well.
"Who are you? How do you know that? What do you want?" Meliodas asked, ignoring everything around him except the man in front of him.
"Lucifer, a demon from another world. I know many things about this world, past, present, and future, don't be surprised. Like I said, I want to invite you to my group" Kaito answered all his questions honestly.
"It seems you won't be honest" Meliodas said, not believing him.
"Come on, don't get angry, I'm serious" Kaito said with a smile.
Ignoring his words, Meliodas pulled back his fist and threw a kick, which Kaito dodged with a slight movement of his head.
Not giving up, Meliodas started throwing several strikes and combos at Kaito in sequence, but Kaito deflected them by striking his fists and kicks before they could reach him every time.
Meliodas kept going without stopping, unable to believe he couldn't hit the person in front of him.
Kaito simply played along for a while before Meliodas jumped back several meters.
"Liz, stay back, they aren't trustworthy" Meliodas made sure to warn Liz before drawing his sword and pointing it at Kaito.
"Hey, Meliodas, do you know where the Demon King and the Supreme Deity came from?" Kaito asked before appearing directly behind him.
Meliodas slashed backward, but Kaito was already gone.
"Chaos created them, so what?" he asked with no real interest.
"So you already know that part, good" Kaito muttered, glad he didn't have to explain it.
But Kaito's calm attitude only irritated Meliodas further, whose strength and speed suddenly increased as black marks started appearing around his body.
He appeared in front of Kaito and began using a mix of hand to hand combat and swordsmanship.
Kaito made sure to dodge the sword while simply blocking the punches, completely ignoring the fight itself.
"So, Chaos didn't just create the Demon King and the Supreme Deity, it also created the World Tree, the Giant Clan, and the Human Clan"
"I don't care about that, stop talking!" Meliodas roared angrily, fighting more and more brutally.
Kaito ignored him and continued speaking.
"Like I was saying, Chaos is basically a natural force, a kind of creator god without consciousness that creates and destroys on a whim purely by instinct.
In short, Chaos is a universal law of this world"
"Roarrrrrgh!"
'Seriously?' Kaito thought after seeing Meliodas roar like a mindless creature.
He immediately appeared in front of him and struck him hard in the chest, making him spit blood.
His completely white eyes regained their color from the pain and the marks covering almost his entire body retreated slightly.
"But a law of this world" Kaito continued his explanation, finally drawing Meliodas' attention. "And if Chaos is a law of this world, then the Demon King, one of its creations, can't surpass that limitation. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Meliodas breathed heavily with one hand on his chest, on one side enduring the pain from the previous blow while on the other trying to calm himself and force his demonic state to recede.
"You're saying the Demon King's curse won't work in your world?" Meliodas asked, remembering Kaito's earlier introduction.
"I think so, although I've obviously never tested it" Kaito replied.
"And why should I believe you?"
"Do you have another option?"
"And what if it doesn't work?"
"If it doesn't work, among the countless worlds I have access to, there must be some solution. And even if that doesn't work, there's still plan B"
"Plan B?" Meliodas asked.
"I become strong enough and beat the hell out of the Demon King" Kaito said as if he wasn't saying anything important.
Although Kaito didn't believe he could defeat the Demon King right now, he had no doubt he could in the future. After all, because of the Demon King's curse, Elizabeth would reincarnate again and again, dying only after remembering her past, so Kaito had unlimited time to grow stronger and kill the Demon King.
Of course, that would only be in case plan A failed, and Kaito was almost certain it would work.
"I'll go with you"
"You decided that quickly?" Kaito asked in surprise.
But Meliodas simply pointed at Liz beside him, who was watching the battle with surprise and something else.
The strangest part was that one of her eyes had turned golden, with her pupil becoming an even brighter gold and bearing a pattern of three curved leaves pointing in the same direction.
"I see" Kaito nodded, recognizing the situation as Elizabeth beginning to recover her memories as a member of the Goddess Clan.
Once her memories returned, she only had three days left before dying from the curse placed on her by the Demon King and the Supreme Deity.
"Liz...Elizabeth"
"Meliodas, I...remember you"
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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)