"So... do all demons wear suits? Do you like them because they match your bat wings or something?" Hekapoo asked.
After traveling toward the frozen island for a while, Kaito got tired of walking and decided to fly, spreading his wings.
To his surprise, Marco was also a demon, also had demonic wings, and also wore a suit, which gave Hekapoo an excuse to make fun of them for quite a while.
As for her, she flew effortlessly using magic.
"I have to look presentable when I meet the love of my life" Marco replied proudly.
Hekapoo rolled her eyes and looked at Kaito, waiting for his answer.
"No particular reason. I just like them."
"Well, at least it suits you."
"Speaking of that, don't you look a little too normal?" Kaito asked, looking at Hekapoo.
"Normal?"
"Normal for... here" Kaito specified.
"So you know the rules of this place?" Hekapoo said in surprise before nodding excitedly. "I knew it. I knew I couldn't be the only one who thought everyone here was crazy except me.
Marco told me he was brought here by some kind of giant God, but I came here on my own, so I knew there had to be some kind of mistake.
I was just enjoying my time in Mewni when I sensed strange ripples in space and decided to check them out. By the time I wanted to go back, I couldn't anymore. Isn't my bad luck incredible?!"
'Bad luck' Kaito realized.
Opening his status, he checked the buffs section. His 5000% luck buff was still there. But to Kaito's surprise, it only had half a day remaining.
'Have almost two weeks passed since I got here?' he thought in disbelief.
'And it looks like Hekapoo's situation might be a little bit my fault.'
"Hey, hey."
"Mm? What is it?" Kaito asked.
"What's with you? You suddenly started ignoring me."
"Oh. Sorry about that. I was thinking about something."
"Whatever. We're here" Hekapoo said dismissively, pointing toward the place in front of them.
They were finally in front of the island, as enormous as Japan, with mountains larger than Mount Everest and a cold that froze everything at the slightest touch.
"Brrr, it's as cold as ever here" Hekapoo said as the small flame on her head burned brighter to warm her up.
"I don't like the person who lives here. He has absolutely no chivalry" Marco commented.
"You know whoever rules this place? Wait, do the four islands each have some kind of ruler?" Kaito asked.
"Yeah, although the Eternal Island has two."
"Which one is that?"
"The one that looks and feels completely normal" Hekapoo replied. "As for the one who rules here, he calls himself the Ice King and controls all the ice in this place. People don't usually come here for sightseeing. After all, the Ice King likes freezing everything, even living beings. No, actually, especially living beings."
"The Ice King? An old madman with a crown?" Kaito asked.
"No, he's a teenager with a robotic arm. Although he is crazy and he does have a crown" Hekapoo corrected.
'A teenager with a robotic arm. Isn't that Finn before the nuclear explosion? Is this some kind of evil version of Finn?' Kaito wondered.
"Let's go meet him" he decided, figuring it would be easier than investigating from afar.
"Hey, hey, are you crazy? I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a flame on my head. What do you think that means? That I enjoy having water thrown on me?"
"It's fine. You can stay here if you want. Just tell me where he is."
"A gentleman does not abandon his companions. I'll guide you" Marco refused as he stepped forward.
"You guys are making me look like a terrible magical being" Hekapoo complained, but the two of them had already left, so neither heard her.
"Ugh... Fine. Wait for me!" she finally said as she followed them helplessly.
...
"So he's on the giant mountain in the middle of everything? Looks like your guidance wasn't really necessary" Kaito joked.
"I-it's cold. Are you seriously planning to... go in there?" Hekapoo asked, shivering.
Actually, with a bit of magic she should have been able to protect herself without any problem, but from their earlier conversation it seemed her magic wasn't self regenerating and instead had to be replenished from external sources, so it made sense that she'd rather endure a little cold than spend a consumable resource.
"Yeah. Wait here."
"If you haven't come back in ten minutes, we'll leave without you, okay? I don't know what you're planning, but don't take too long" Hekapoo threatened.
Fwooshhh.
"Hey, what did I tell you about my flame?!" she complained as Kaito's wind blasted past her while he flew away at full speed.
...
The frozen mountain where the Ice King supposedly lived literally had a gigantic entrance shaped like a mouth, so getting inside was incredibly easy.
As expected, everything inside was made of ice.
That included the floor, the walls, the stairs, the ceiling, the chandeliers, the cages in the back, the throne in the center, and of course the frozen people surrounding the throne itself.
The moment Kaito entered, he saw the so called Ice King sitting on the throne. He looked like an elderly, unkempt version of Finn, with an almost skeletal thin body, long unkempt white hair reaching the floor, and a long white beard that blended into his hair.
He wore nothing but a loincloth, leaving his skeletal ribs exposed as he crouched atop his frozen throne, looking around with the curiosity of a madman.
As soon as Kaito entered, the king noticed him and stared at him with overflowing interest.
"Life? Life?! Life! Freeze, freeze, I have to freeze him!"
He raised both hands, and a terrible freezing wind surged toward Kaito, mixed with magic capable of freezing everything.
But to the Ice King's surprise, when the wind disappeared, Kaito was still standing there completely unharmed.
"What?! Ice? Ice, it didn't work" he said as he jumped around on his own throne like a madman.
'It works well' Kaito nodded after confirming that his mini domain of immobility didn't only work on stones.
But the next moment he deactivated it himself, surrounding his body with fire instead, far weaker than his use of Motion.
'But I can't do two things at once' Kaito sighed in disappointment, realizing he still had to train his ability much more.
He had originally planned to simply appear beside the Ice King and remove the crown effortlessly, but then he realized this was a perfect opportunity.
While the Ice King kept trying to freeze him, never once leaving his spot as though they were trapped in a static battle from a fighting anime, Kaito instead extended his senses.
His target was the crown on Finn's head.
But just as he expected, it didn't move the way an ordinary object would. Instead, Kaito felt an incredible resistance.
If he increased his power, he could force it off, but he had no intention of doing that. He wanted to train something else.
Kaito didn't actually possess telekinesis. What he was doing was controlling the rules governing how things functioned, forcing an object's movement according to his will.
But if that only worked on ordinary things, it would be completely useless. That was why Kaito had decided to use the Ice King as a training dummy.
His objective wasn't to remove the crown by brute force through greater power. If that were his goal, he could simply grab it with his hand. No, Kaito's goal was to improve the "rule" he used to move objects.
Using the rule, "Every existing object moves regardless of what it is," Kaito tried to refine it, or rather improve its precision, to the point where he wouldn't need to overcome an object's resistance, but where resistance itself simply wouldn't exist. After all, if every object moves, then resistance itself shouldn't exist.
'These rule based abilities are way too complicated. If Gid hadn't explained them to me, I never would have found the right approach.'
Even when the system had originally granted him the ability along with its explanation, Kaito hadn't truly understood how to use it. It was only thanks to Gid mentioning that these abilities functioned through rules that Kaito understood which direction he needed to take.
...
"I did it!" Kaito opened his eyes excitedly after finally feeling the resistance disappear.
At that moment, if he wanted the crown in his hand, he could accomplish it with a single thought, without needing to overcome any opposing force.
"H-hey, you're finally awake? H-how about helping us now?"
Kaito followed the voice and found Hekapoo and Marco protecting him from the cold with magic.
'Marco can use magic?' he wondered for a moment. 'No, this isn't the time to think about that.'
Kaito finally noticed that the fire magic he had used to protect himself had gone out a long time ago, and because he had been too focused, he hadn't noticed or renewed it. The only reason he hadn't frozen was because they had protected him.
"Thanks for that. I'll take it from here" Kaito said as he stood up. The thin layer of ice covering him shattered the moment he moved.
Before any of the three could react, with a decorative wave of his hand, the crown on Finn's head moved as though carried by an invisible hand and gently landed in Kaito's palm.
The moment it happened, the freezing wind and magic stopped. Time across the entire island returned to normal almost instantly. Even the massive frozen mountains slowly began to melt.
But the one most affected wasn't the environment, it was undoubtedly Finn. His already aged and skeletal body deteriorated even further, becoming little more than a living corpse.
"Did he die?" Hekapoo asked as she looked at the walking skeleton.
"...The crown... thank you" the supposedly dead man suddenly murmured, his voice so hoarse it barely sounded human, and so quiet it was almost a whisper.
"I... can finally die" he smiled as tears flowed from his now sightless eyes. "I'll finally pay... for all my sins."
"Hey, old man, even you... you shouldn't be happy about dying. You know what death means in this place."
"Heh heh... cough cough cough... I know. He'll come for me. But... I deserve it" the old man said with a guilty smile. "Before I die... there's something I want to tell you... The crown... can grant wishes."
"That old piece of junk?" Hekapoo raised an eyebrow, not believing him.
"Cough cough cough... Not now. It already lost its power. But there is a way... if you manage to..."
Ting ting ting.
Before the old man could finish speaking, the sound of a small bell echoed through the room.
"He's here" Marco said, immediately becoming alert, with Hekapoo doing the same.
At that moment, every light in the room was swallowed by absolute darkness. There, within that artificial yet real night, a small lantern moved toward the old man lying on the floor.
The lantern lowered, revealing the face of a young looking person wearing a red cone shaped hat, with tree branches growing from his head like long horizontal antlers.
"I've been waiting for you, old friend. That old crown was never going to keep death away from you forever."
Kneeling on the ground, his whispers could be heard clearly as he extended a hand toward Finn.
Before Kaito could react, the light vanished once again, taking the mysterious person with it.
As for Finn, he now lay on the floor, completely dead.
"What was that?" Kaito asked immediately.
"That was... the Beast."
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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)