Suddenly, the figure in front of them vanished, then reappeared with two more people.
Kaito stopped vibrating along with Mashiro and Megumi, and Hikigaya and Miura saw their true appearances.
"What do we do now? Do we fight?"
"Didn't you see who that is? You can fight if you want," Hikigaya replied.
"That's why I told you we should run, just like everyone else," Miura answered.
"And then what? Face everyone else who ran to the sacred forest? The best option is..."
"It doesn't matter what the best option is if we can't do it," Miura interrupted.
"Fine, we still have three lives, we run once and regroup with the others," Hikigaya planned.
But Kaito interrupted them, amused by their conversation.
"I already marked you, no matter where you appear, I can find you."
"What do we do?" Miura asked in fear.
"Don't worry, he's definitely lying." Hikigaya analyzed the situation more carefully and did not believe Kaito.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I checked, he didn't lie," Miura shot back.
"And are you sure the ability didn't fail on him? I'm sure he's much stronger than you."
Miura fell silent for a second at Hikigaya's thought.
"I'm not sure if you two get along or not," Kaito interrupted.
"Not."
"Not."
They said in unison.
"Alright, you can hate each other after we're done. You know how this works, or do you prefer to fight first?"
The moment he said that, two notifications arrived from both Lords surrendering.
"Fight what? I'm weaker than a normal person, and all my skeletons couldn't handle even a single one of your subordinates," Hikigaya muttered pessimistically, more to himself than to anyone else.
"That's right, the mind controller has a growth curve, until I get stronger I'm practically useless. If I hadn't met him, I'd already be dead," Miura added.
"So you do get along," Kaito said in surprise.
"So what were you saying about running?" he asked, looking at Hikigaya.
Hikigaya swallowed nervously before answering.
"Well, most of them ran to the other side of the continent to try to grow before challenging you, which caused a massive influx of Lords into the pure elf territory. So I thought about fleeing to another continent instead."
Kaito thought about what he said and realized he was right.
He already knew that many Lords had fled the Black Forest, but he had never grasped the real number.
Leaving aside major powers like Megumi, Hikigaya, or Yukinoshita, he had neither heard of nor encountered any Lord territories throughout the entire outer sector.
Of course, there were many weak ones who had not even conquered a village, so they could have had territory somewhere in the forest that Kaito simply never noticed while passing by.
But even taking that into account, and the fact that those who had already conquered a village were a minority, the number was still far too low.
Japan has around fifty two million Lords, and most Lords from the same country are summoned to the same continent.
Even considering that around ten percent had already died, there should still be about forty five million left, with at least forty million on the same continent as Kaito.
No matter how much of a minority they were, having encountered only three major powers so far was an absurdly small number.
That meant the sacred forest must be absolute chaos right now.
By the time Kaito took the Black Forest, the sacred forest would most likely also have fallen into the hands of the Lords, but unlike the Black Forest, which fell by force, the sacred forest would fall by sheer numbers.
"So your plan was to leave the continent using the Wyverns?" Kaito asked, returning to the main topic.
"Yes, but now there's no need," Hikigaya nodded.
"The Black Forest is already large enough, not to mention an entire continent. I'm not going to waste resources sending them to another continent even if they have the capability," Kaito said.
"Resources?"
"Resources?"
Both asked at the same time.
Kaito smiled.
"We're in the process of conquering the Black Forest, which comes with a lot of paperwork."
He extended a hand to each of them before continuing.
"Welcome aboard."
'Why do I feel like I just joined a black company?'
Although both thought the same thing, they forced an awkward smile and nodded as they took his hand.
"By the way, can you remove that dome and your skeletons too? They're a nuisance," Kaito added.
"Nuisance, kughh."
Hikigaya grabbed his chest dramatically, feeling as if he had taken a thousand points of psychological damage, before deactivating the dome.
It was created by a single use artifact he had summoned, so he could deactivate it whenever he wanted.
As for the skeletons, of course he could dismiss them at will.
The yellow dome disappeared, revealing a clear blue sky above them.
It was around ten in the morning, the sun was not yet high, and its rays mixed with the clouds.
Absolute silence and stillness ruled the area once the skeletons vanished.
Even the Wyverns remained motionless in the air, confused by the situation.
Roaaaaar.
But it did not last long.
A roar broke the silence, and many others followed.
"They noticed us already," Hikigaya spoke before frowning.
"But why aren't they coming closer?"
The scene was strange.
Instead of attacking like before, they all gathered in the sky at a minimum distance, creating an unsettling sight, yet none of them descended.
"It's because they're afraid," Megumi answered from behind.
"Afraid?"
At Miura's question, Megumi did not reply.
Instead, she looked at Kaito.
A strange aura seeped out around Kaito.
It was not physical, yet everyone could feel it.
It even felt pleasant to be near.
However, while Kaito's ruler aura benefited his allies, enemies were suppressed both physically and mentally, which was why none of the Wyverns dared to descend.
"Anyone coming with me?" Kaito asked, looking around.
"Tired."
"I can't fly."
"Me...uh."
"No way."
With those answers, Kaito stopped paying attention to them.
He bent his legs slightly and jumped straight toward one of the Wyverns at such speed that it died instantly from the collision.
Its body bent unnaturally backward and was sent flying, but Kaito did not let it go.
He spread his wings and in less than a second was right beside it.
The Wyvern vanished in midair.
Kaito had stored the corpse in his inventory.
While he cannot store living beings, he can store corpses.
Normally, when a living being is killed it disappears and only useful parts remain, but that is a system function that can be disabled, and Kaito had disabled it to preserve the bodies for his new subordinate.
Without giving them time to react, Kaito appeared in front of another Wyvern and grabbed it by the neck.
The difference in size made the scene look comical, but for the Wyvern it was anything but.
With a light squeeze, its neck snapped and it died instantly before disappearing into the inventory.
All the Wyverns tried to flee in fear, but Kaito did not allow it.
Those that flew downward were kicked into the ground with such force that they died on impact.
Those that turned their backs on him were grabbed by a wing and thrown to the ground.
The most unfortunate were those who tried to attack him, as Kaito simply moved closer, dodged them, and snapped their necks with a single blow.
From the ground, Miura and Hikigaya, who were not accustomed to that kind of violence, trembled in fear.
Mashiro and Megumi, on the other hand, remained unfazed.
Mashiro because she had seen things like this before, and Megumi because of her personality.
When the Wyverns began to fall like rain, Mashiro raised a shield with one hand to protect them.
"Thanks."
"Nn."
Mashiro nodded without replying, her gaze fixed on Kaito.
The bodies kept falling one by one, raising clouds of dust and forming craters, making the place look like a war zone.
Finally, after a few minutes, Kaito descended to the ground and stored all the corpses, leaving none behind.
"All done, I'll send them to you later."
"To me?" Hikigaya asked in surprise.
"Who else would need five hundred Wyvern corpses?"
"No, it's just... thanks?"
"It's fine, they were going to be yours from the start, I just saved time. By the way, you don't have territory, right?" Kaito asked casually.
Hikigaya scratched his head, embarrassed, while Miura blushed slightly.
"Yeah, we were thinking... you know, about leaving, so we don't have territory."
"Then you do now. We'll have a lot of territory to manage in the future."
Then he muttered to himself.
"Sometimes I think Kaguya exaggerates, the Lords aren't that big of a problem."
But with senses enhanced by leveling up, everyone heard him.
Hikigaya and Miura looked at him with frustration, Megumi was left speechless, and finally the only one who voiced her opinion was Mashiro.
"Kaito, show off."
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
(They don't reach 15 at this moment, since there is a marathon of my other fic because it is ending.)
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)