White Serpent Tower
Island X
Inside the Throne Hall, red and white-armored Kai was seated on his high-back throne majestically.
His eyes were closed, his breathing calm and composed.
With every next breath, a light trail of blood flas kept slithering out of his nostrils, diffusing in his surroundings.
One week had already passed since he had ordered Cersei and Petyr to march toward the south, letting them command two Companies of Undead.
They had returned after a successful venture two days ago.
Now, Kai planned to go to the Samurai's Hut, his heart brimming with confidence.
It was then it happened.
...
Kai's eyes suddenly snapped open, his entire body becoming taut.
A great uneasy feeling took over his heart. A feeling which had beco familiar to him since his arrival at Island X.
"Cersei," Kai called out, his voice echoing throughout the Tower. "Petyr."
Shuuuuu!
The bronze-armored warrior said nothing, reading Kai's face.
With one step, Petyr's figure blurred and lted inside Kai, triggering Relentless Love.
Then, a shadowy, black-armored silhouette blurred into existence in front of Kai. Cersei's shadow cloak vanished and her gaze landed on her lord.
"Go back," Kai commanded, lifting his palm toward her.
The beauty's eyes narrowed.
Kai was commanding her to disappear altogether.
Stronger than a Captain she might be, but even with armor Cersei was helpless against Commanders.
Moreover, since the matter of her getting captured by Shadow Lord, Kai had decided to be extra careful regarding the Tales of Beedle the Bard during certain monts of unease.
This was one of those monts.
Cersei pulled the earring off her left ear and put it on Kai's palm.
"Be careful," she said, knowing well that sothing incredibly grave must have happened for him to send her back.
When Cersei had gone, the earring on Kai's palm transfigured into the Tales of Beedle the Bard.
He threw it into the Inventory.
Suddenly, Kai leaned down and his hands lted into his shadow, the darkness undulating like dark waters.
From it, he pulled out two katanas, each more exquisite than the other.
"I sense sothing amiss," Sounga, the evil dragon spirit, said, letting out a purple glow. "Oi, kid! If you are planning to use to kill weaklings, then this Dragon swears—"
The noise of several plates of tal rubbing on each other drowned Sounga's angry shouts.
Kai stood up, and with a pop, vanished.
...
When he reappeared, Kai was already standing at the top of the White Serpent Tower, his feet resting on a board with the shape of an eagle's wings.
This board's edges were hideously sharp.
Kai had used the Six Yautja Ceremonial Daggers to add another layer of sharpness.
The sun had already set, he realized.
The clear skies had gone dark, and from further down, he could see monstrous clouds galloping toward him.
Occasional flashes of light, followed by distant, fading gurgles, told Kai that a thunderstorm was imminent.
Sudden weather changes were a typical sight on Island X.
What's the reason for this uneasy feeling then?
Rumbleee!
Crack!!
Thunder cracked as if clouds had burst apart inside Kai's ears.
The wind beca a tempest and then sheets of rain began pouring out from those dark monstrosities, drenching everything under the skies.
Wielding Murasa in his left hand and Sounga in his right hand, Kai licked the rain off his face and smiled.
This is not natural, he concluded.
Which old friend has co unannounced, I wonder?
Suddenly, a formless ripple originated sowhere and swept by the entire Island X.
The mont this ripple ca into being, it instantly arrived at the White Serpent Tower.
Kai felt a jolt in his heart. Hmm? His burrows furrowed. Shadow Realm Jamming? No. It's different.
Kai quickly dived into the Shadow Space and saw that he couldn't access any branded shadow outside a kiloter radius circle.
This was sothing new, making him curious.
Till now, whenever the Star Beast Brotherhood jamd Shadow Realm, he couldn't even access Shadow Space, much less teleportation using Shadow Link.
As remaining within Shadow Space consud his MP, Kai flew out and hovered above the head of the White Serpent's statue propped at the top of the Tower.
Which one is it? Kai asked himself, rain slapping across his hard face. Which General has co and from which Army?
The entire sky answered him.
Kai's head snapped up, and what he saw made him raise his eyebrows.
The dark clouds had gone red. So red, in fact, that it felt like they were burning. It was as if soone had lit a fla behind a transparent black veil.
And then the clouds burst apart.
ZOOOM!
Three enormous teorites fell toward Kai, leaving behind a burning trail in their wake.
The entire sky lit up with an orange-yellow-red color because of them, an invisible pressure rocking the entire space.
This wasn't all, though.
As Kai's mouth pressed into a thin line, a gargantuan amount of weight fell over him. It was as if he had suddenly gained 10 tis his weight.
Indeed.
In the sa 1 km radius circle around Kai, the gravity had increased by ten tis.
Kai behaved as if he had sensed nothing and kept hovering above the tower, his gaze planted hard on the teorites.
However, the undead weren't as absurd as Red.
Other than the Level 3 Reanimated Corpses, all undead's knees buckled, rooting them to the grounds.
Kai had never counted on them for him to frown upon their situation, to begin with.
All the undead were cannon fodder and were pretty much useless in a fight of this caliber.
Just as the teorites arrived 500 ters above the tower, their heat arrived first, scorching Kai's face.
He lifted his hand and pressed a switch on his right arm.
Thrummmmmm!
The entire tower trembled and a spherical do appeared around the White Serpent Tower.
The spherical do comprised countless hexagonal shields made of Mana.
One mont, the 3 teorites were still falling, space burning in their surroundings.
In the next mont, they already kissed the spherical do.
BOOM!!!
Everything shook.
All beings trembled.
But the spherical do didn't break.
Kai's smile widened. This Mana do was a product of his and Rintaro's decades' worth of research and experints.
It could even hold its ground under the barrage of a General for fifteen minutes.
Kai was still marveling at the sight of rubble and fire scattered in the skies when his heart once more jolted.
It was as if soone had gripped and squeezed it.
This ti, however, he didn't get the ti to ruminate over this uneasy feeling.
A sun had risen over the horizon, Kai saw. Clouds got torn apart, the downpour vaporized, and the wind beca a sea of heat. Even the night couldn't stand against the light and heat.
From that sun, a single ray of sunlight trailed through the sky in slow motion as if ti had stagnated.
The mont this ray of burning sunlight landed on the Mana do, with a resounding bang, it shattered like an enormous mirror.
And as the pieces of the do rained down, for the first ti, Kai realized why he had been getting the uneasy feeling.
He had thought that a General had arrived.
He wasn't wrong, but he wasn't right, either.
A General had indeed arrived, but not alone.
The sky was covered with them, their figures reflecting the shining heat. All of them had arrived at once, sharing the sa ambition.
Today—they would eradicate the False One.
"Incredible!" Kai's eyes shone, his figure rising toward the sky, toward those figures. "What an honor! What a remarkable honor for you all to co for together!"
This sight felt too familiar.
This sight could make one feel deja vu.
There was a ti when Kai had been surrounded by incomprehensibly powerful figures. A ti when he was standing in the sky, like today; a ti when he was wearing red armor, like today.
Kai felt as if he could hear the gurgles of that old thunderstorm approaching him from behind.
However, in the end, this day wasn't like that. Not at all.
Things had changed.
Tis had changed.
He had changed.
Today, too, he stood alone.
But today, Kai alone was enough.
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