"That's a relief. For now, though, we're just being cautious because Kai is extremely strong—he's possibly among the strongest people in the world—so it's certain he'll come back safe." Yumiko briefly commented in a calm, friendly tone while looking at Eva, who nodded visibly relieved and remarked.
"That's good… I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully if something happened to that young man or the fairy…"
"Don't worry. Besides, that fairy is sort of one of Kai's abilities, so nothing will happen to it." Yumiko added with a smile as she walked toward Eva, who wore a look of surprise, then placed a hand on the abused woman's shoulder and added with a grin.
"For now, it's best you take a bath and put on some clothes. Your son is fine now, and you've been through a lot. By the way, we still don't know your name. Mine is Yumiko Ayanami."
"Thank you… and my name is Eva White…"
Although she didn't quite understand why, Eva answered in a trembling voice while her tears began to fall down her face, prompting Yumiko to embrace her gently as she offered small smiles to her own family. They looked at her with equal parts amazement and understanding—which made sense, after all, it was the first time she had introduced herself using her maiden name.
"It's all right. You're safe now. Nobody here can hurt you anymore…"
Yumiko spoke in a calm, motherly voice as she held Eva, causing the abused woman to weep with all her strength, clinging to the blanket that covered her. Yet deep inside, the blue-haired mother felt her heart pounding wildly, overcome by a deep terror that gnawed at her bones, prompting her to silently pray for her beloved Kai's safety.
…
…
…
Once in the air, with his swords surrounded by ominous arcs of purple electricity, Kai spotted a beam of light rising skyward, which he immediately recognized as Accompany. He quickly activated his advanced Observation Haki, along with Gyo on his eyes, allowing him to see a vision of the future in which Eva was yanked backward by a ghostly web.
(Hehehe, just as I thought.)
While chuckling internally, Kai swiftly pinpointed the source of the ghostly web. Without a second thought, he poured all his electric aura into his swords at maximum power, at the same time tracing an invisible rail for his blade, then solemnly declared.
"Railgun!"
With Kai's announcement, the middle sword shot forward at hypersonic speeds, so fast it was almost impossible for even Kai to perceive it. It reached its target almost instantly, generating a brutal shock wave that even tore trees from the ground, while a mist born of the violent impact spread through the air. At that moment, Kai once again glimpsed the future and realized he had achieved his goal: Eva was free to leave safely.
Ever since theorizing that the spiders were actually very intelligent and capable of making strategic decisions to prevent escape, Kai had refused to believe things would be as easy as just removing the webs to stop the ghostly thread from pulling them back. Especially after encountering the spider that likely possessed "conditional webs".
Given such an irrational power similar to his own aura, Kai was prepared to believe anything was possible; so, being cautious, he decided to send Eva first while he stayed behind. And he had been absolutely right—those spiders were truly troublesome, like the monstrous Drider behind him who, despite having taken one of his strongest attacks head-on, was still alive.
"Master, mission accomplished."
Once Accompany's light vanished into the air, Sage materialized out of nowhere by his side and spoke in a serious tone. Kai, regaining his composure from the huge aura expenditure, nodded and praised her with a smile.
"You did perfectly, Sage."
"I only did my duty."
Sage responded cheerfully to her Master's praise, making Kai chuckle softly. He then turned again to look at the Drider, immobilized by the thick arcs of electricity surrounding its body and seeming to connect it to the sky, and spoke in a solemn tone.
"Sage, capture that thing."
"Understood, Master."
Sage responded quickly in a serious tone, as her swords vanished and her armor began to glow, then transformed into a female prison guard uniform. At that moment, she flew toward the Drider to touch its head, but instead of her usual calm and confident demeanor, a trace of surprise and confusion appeared on the beautiful fairy's face. She pulled her hand away from the monster and stared at it in bewilderment.
As if refusing to believe it, Sage pressed her hand against the Drider again, only to pull it back in astonishment. She repeated the action several times before Kai couldn't help but ask, equally surprised and uneasy.
"What's wrong, Sage?"
"Master… for some reason, Alcatraz won't activate. It's as if it isn't considered 'defeated'."
Sage answered in an uncertain tone, tinged with urgency because thanks to her Master's Observation Haki, she could sense at least a hundred presences of varying power levels approaching quickly. At that, Kai could only speak in a serious voice.
"Let me do something more drastic, then."
Landing on the ground, Kai assumed a posture similar to the en garde position in fencing, right leg in front, slightly bent, and his weight on his left leg, extended behind him. His right sword was held in front of his chest, pointed slightly at the Drider, his body leaning forward a bit, all while his electricity flared up, crackling violently.
"… Lightning Lunge!"
After channeling his Haki and aura for a few moments, Kai announced in a loud voice as he lunged forward at nearly imperceptible speed, leaving behind a purple electric trail as the only evidence of his movement. The instant he was at the perfect distance from the Drider's humanoid torso, he performed a classic fencing thrust, managing to sink almost half of his sword into the creature.
The moment Kai finished, having stabbed the area where the heart would be in a human, a fierce current of purple electricity surged inside the monster, burning it from within, then erupted from its body, forming arcs of electricity thicker than Kai himself. They seemed to connect heaven and earth, as though a cataclysmic lightning bolt had struck the monster.
"You son of a bitch…"
Hearing the Drider's voice—weak but still 'alive and steady'—Kai couldn't help cursing in shock. He chose to leave his sword in the monster and jumped back, then looked at Sage and ordered in a somewhat doubtful tone.
"Sage, try again."
"…"
Without saying a word, Sage, still dressed as a guard, placed her hand on the monster once more. But after a few seconds, she could only look at her Master and shake her head. At that moment, the beautiful fairy noticed something strange about the creature's body, so she swiftly informed her Master.
"Master, it's regenerating. Even with the electricity still coursing through its system, it's somehow managing to heal itself."
"This thing is way too dangerous…" Kai remarked gravely, but he quickly shook his head and turned around, giving his back to Sage because the spiders had at last arrived. He spoke in a solemn voice.
"Sage, gather all the data you can from that damned thing. I'll keep the spiders at bay. Once you're done, let me know. No matter what, that thing has to die before we leave—it's too dangerous to let live."
"Understood, Master. I'll make a perfect copy of this thing. Give me a few minutes."
Sage answered firmly as her guard uniform lit up, transforming into her dress of light. Her wings began to glow in various colors, like a kaleidoscope. At that moment, Kai spoke calmly while unleashing his Conqueror's Haki violently to face the spiders that were now only a few meters away.
"I trust you."
(It's a good thing these spiders aren't that strong. I've used too much aura to keep using finishing moves. My goal is to buy time now, so I need to fight using as little energy as possible—I need maximum efficiency.)
Watching the tide of spiders appears among the trees, with the weaker ones dropping like puppets thanks to his Conqueror's Haki, Kai closed his eyes and quickly refocused his thoughts, taking a deep breath using his perfected breathing method. At the same time, his lightning dimmed, shifting from thick, dark purple arcs to more discreet blueish sparks.
After taking a few deep breaths, Kai snapped his eyes open, releasing electric sparks from them. At that instant, eight spiders of various sizes—ranging from one meter to about three—rushed at him. They were somewhat similar to the black spider from before, but had peculiar purple markings. All at once, they spat out strange liquids of different colors.
With a calm, measured expression, Kai leaped slightly to his left, dodging the first spit, and then dashed forward while making minimal zigzag movements, narrowly avoiding each projectile by mere millimeters until he was right in front of the spiders. At that point, he stomped the ground and shot forward, swinging his swords at incredible speed with a fluid, almost choreographic rhythm.
In a matter of milliseconds, Kai appeared behind the spiders. Then he began walking calmly and methodically toward the spider horde, swords pointed at the ground and dripping a strange mixture of violet liquids. Meanwhile, the spiders behind him remained utterly still, as if frozen, until—after Kai had taken a couple of steps—they collapsed to the ground, sliced into several pieces, releasing blood of various colors that merged into a thick fluid resembling what was dripping from Kai's blades.
As the spiders fell, Kai heard a deafening screech—a chorus of at least a dozen spiders. Then, from the charred black soil, something like sharp roots burst forth in his direction, attacking from every angle in the 180-degree arc in front of him. He responded calmly, moving his left sword at a speed that was only slightly astounding, then carried on walking without pause.
While Kai strode on, the roots were cut into dozens of pieces that fell to the ground. He tilted his head back at one point, then swung his right sword swiftly to the side without even looking, at which point a slender spider, about fifty centimeters in size with extremely long, needle-like legs, suddenly appeared—one of its legs was aimed at where his head had been. Moments later, it dropped lifelessly to the ground, sliced in half.
Lowering his sword again, Kai unleashed a flying slash to his left, but unlike his usual flashy attacks, this one was smaller, more discreet—barely noticeable as a faint dark ripple in the air. Midway, it collided with a small blue spider bearing an electric pattern on its abdomen, which had been moving at incredible speed.
Advancing steadily through the horde of spiders of every shape and size, always with measured, deliberate steps, Kai dodged with the smallest possible movements, then cut them down with his swords—usually defending with the left and attacking with the right. He refrained from sending flying slashes whenever possible, and if he did, they were subtle and understated. This seemed to terrify the spiders, causing them to attack in an ever more erratic manner.
Though more and more spiders kept arriving by the minute, doing everything they could to assault Kai, he remained calm and expressionless, methodically operating like a human meat grinder, killing anything that attacked him with maximum efficiency. Even when one of the original spiders entered his range of perception, accompanied by two others of similar power, he remained unfazed—until Sage finally contacted him mentally.
[It's done, Master. This is the most complex and bizarre thing I've ever seen, so it took much longer than expected.]
[Perfect, I'm on my way.]
***
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