"The first time I died, I was in a dark place."

"There was nothing, just darkness."

"I cried for help, I begged for rescue."

"No one came to help me."

"But at that moment... a warm light came right at me."

"It was a dark light from which a woman in a black dress and skeleton-like appearance greeted me."

"She said 'Your time has not come, but you are not someone normal either. I will not allow you to die until you have achieved your goal. Go on living and experiencing a life of joy to achieve your desire, I wish to see you one day and that you have achieved it'."

"That's what she said."

Klyde was telling strange things to the official who was taking down everything he said.

He couldn't believe it.

(This guy... he's completely insane!)

He couldn't believe his ears.

The official said.

"Hey, we have to inform the king that this guy is crazy. I don't know if we can condemn someone in such a deranged state of mind."

Despite the official saying that, Klyde didn't stop.

"I knew that thanks to the fall of the principality, I had to hurry with my plan. Take the palace, you see, I am a man who wishes to possess everything."

"For that reason I planned all this. I wanted to get caught."

"After catching me, the royal family would not flee if they knew that the terrorist who would make an attempt on their lives is free, right?"

"I also took advantage of Hogan not being here."

"It worked out just as I wanted it to. Really... everything is so perfect that it overwhelms me."

Suddenly, on Klyde's forehead a stigma manifested itself.

A black cross suddenly appeared on his forehead.

"Both me and my firstborn children, we ate the red pill."

"The effect starts once an hour has passed."

"They were also like me, but only once, that's why they only needed the pill once unlike me which was six."

"Oh, one more thing that woman said."

"She said she supported me because I reminded her so much of a man she knew in the past."

At that moment, the official who tried to check to see if Klyde didn't have some disease saw something frightening.

"Before I left the sixth time we met, she stuck a strange sword in my head."

*Giggle*

◇◇◇

Max was being interrogated in an adjoining room.

He was crying.

The official who interrogated him was disgusted with him.

(This guy, everything he said was despicable.)

The official listened as Max blamed Rei for everything that happened.

Every bad deed he did he blamed on Rei.

The official was disgusted by how envious Max was.

(I knew relatives of noble houses were greedy, but this guy, I'm disgusted by how hypocritical he is).

(He's just like a spoiled child who doesn't get his toy.)

(I hope they put him in jail for life.)

The official stood up, he was going out for a drink.

"Gyah!"

Then he heard a noise.

It was coming from the adjoining room.

"What was that?"

The knight next to him asked.

As he was about to leave, they heard a creaking sound coming from in front of them.

Then cracks manifested and the wall was kicked from the inside.

A cloud of dust filled the room, the official and the knight got out so they could breathe.

Max was on the floor frightened by the sudden broken wall.

But he was much more frightened when he saw who was coming out through the smoke.

"Oh, Max-kun, there you were."

He looked at Klyde standing in the rubble.

His clothes were covered in blood.

The frightening thing wasn't the blood, it was his appearance.

Between his hands stretched a pair of swords that overtopped his arms.

His elbows became sword handles.

From his forehead protruded a long sword, a black liquid covered that part as on his arms.

Klyde could not see as his eyes were covered with that mysterious pitch.

But he could still "see" Max and hear him despite having no ears.

"Let me thank you. Without you, this wouldn't have sped up, now I'll be able to achieve my wish."

"Once I kill the royal family, I will become the new king and give you what you promised."

Klyde, who was no longer a human, but an aberration that in his words he heard from that woman, he was an Infernal.

A being born of malice.

He was just like Calvin, the malice in his heart made him a faithful follower of the goddess of death.

Klyde left the place and climbed the stairs to reach the second floor of the castle.

There he saw how a group of knights were waiting for him.

"What is that thing?"

They all asked in panic, he gave it no importance and in one swift movement cut them all off.

The servants who were present fled in terror.

Klyde proclaimed.

"Royal family, it's time to start the cat and mouse game. Don't make it so easy for me, will you?"

The execution of the king and queen.

◇◇◇

Rei and Ange stood transfixed watching as Kurono got a body and went that way.

Ange asked.

"Onii-chan, what was that just now?"

Rei didn't know how to explain, no, he had no idea what happened just now.

"D-Don't worry. That was an illusion."

"It's something created by my imagination."

Despite saying that, he checked the magic stone where Kurono lived until recently.

The color was still blue, but the glow was lost.

(Did you really come out of there?)

Rei always had Kurono next to him, he never expected the day to come where they would be separated.

(It's strange not to have him around. But he wanted to be able to walk, I'll let him have some fun.)

"Ange, let's go home."

Rei wanted to give Kurono time off, after telling Ange that it was time to go back, she gave her little hand to hold.

Rei activated his skill.

"Teleportation."

"..."

Nothing happened.

"Is this weird?"

"Whenever I name any skill it activates immediately."

Rei activated his skill again.

"Teleportation."

"Teleportation."

"Teleportation!"

"..."

Sweat was pouring down his forehead.

"Why can't I use it? What happened that I can't...?"

He remembered something vital.

Every time he used a skill, Kurono was with him.

Rei used on himself the first real ability he knew how to handle.

"Open status!"

A window appeared in front of him, it was his.

All of Rei's information was recorded there.

In one corner was a diagram showing a circle.

The six categories were the basic ones; strength, defense, intelligence, luck, MP and agility.

Rei was startled to see how the amount of MP that was usually always maxed out.

It was now at less than 40% full.

Meaning.

(By not having Kuro next to me, my cheating skills have been drastically reduced.)

(It's true! Kuro said he was lending me his skills, but now that he's gone, my powers have originally been returned to him.)

"This is bad, I must find him."

"Rei onii-chan, look."

Ange tugged on Rei's sleeve.

She pointed to a location.

The two watched as a column of smoke billowed out from the capital.

He immediately thought of the laugh Klyde showed him.

"If I can't use teleportation, I'll use this one."

"Space Jump!"

Rei grabbed Ange and then took a big leap in the air.

He shouted the name of the skill again and it looked like Rei was jumping above the clouds.

"At this moment where I need you most and you disappear. Ugh, stupid Kurooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

◇◇◇

Rei was over the sky of the academy, taking Ange with him was exhausting him.

He was checking his status window, the numbers in MP were going down and up reaching the initial number.

Rei was losing power by doing this.

Lowering his gaze in frustration, he noticed Eli and Nadine with Emma in the garden.

He quickly descended and handed Ange to Nadine.

"Please take care of her."

"Rei-dono, the palace is under attack by some enemy!"

"Please make sure their majesties are safe!"

"I know."

Rei again jumped up and went straight to the castle.

Eli turned around, there he saw Ange with Nadine and asked.

"Nadine, who is that girl?"

In what she was about to answer.

"Princess, your eyes are scary."

She was scared of Eli's lifeless eyes.

◇◇◇

Being near the palace, Rei visualized the large amount of smoke coming out of the castle.

He quickly fell to the ground breaking a window.

Even if he used "protection", he could feel the damage caused by the fall.

"It really is annoying this."

"... Duke Redblade?"

He heard a voice, as he looked around he noticed the destruction that passed this way.

There were even some servants as dead knights.

Then he looked down at the ground, he saw Nigel wounded.

"Hey, hang in there."

Rei tried to heal him, but the healing process was slow.

Rei clicked his tongue seeing how vital Kurono was in his life.

(Am I useless without Kuro?)

(Whatever is going on in the palace, it's bad for me. Without all my powers I'm not even able to heal, I don't want to imagine what will happen when I have to fight.)

Nigel grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and said in a low voice.

"Your Majesties... he's going after the king and queen... you must save them before us..."

Nigel fainted after saying that.

Rei set him down in a more comfortable place and then used his skill to take great leaps and follow the trail of destruction.

Then, as if by a miracle, he found a strange man with swords walking slowly.

Seeing him with his back to him, he knew he was the culprit, put his hand in front of him and manifested a spell.

"Fireball!"

The fireball he normally did was a very large one that flew at great speed.

But this fireball was medium and its speed was regular.

Still, the fireball hit the mysterious man.

His coat was on fire, he took it off and when he turned to see who attacked him he got a surprise.

"... Redblade Brat?"

"... What the hell are you?"

Rei looked at Klyde with a monstrous appearance, unlike before, now his skin was occurring and the edge of the blades in his hands were turning like shark teeth.

Klyde, with his misshapen mouth smiled at him.

"I was waiting for you. I knew you'd show up sooner or later, that's why I took my time coming up."

"Answer me! Who the fuck are you? Why are you attacking the palace?"

Klyde understood that he didn't recognize him, he introduced himself because of that.

"I am Klyde Bartolt."

"Like Calvin, I have become an infernal."

"I will now use the gift I was given to satiate my desire."

"I will destroy the royal family to─"

"Break hearts!"

Rei activated a skill that was to explode the heart after squeezing it.

He used it after seeing Calvin use it.

He had never tried it since he didn't see anyone worth using it.

Klyde's body slumped to the ground.

It was all over just like that, but Rei didn't hold back.

He materialized some tonfa with swords in it.

"For any thing I'm going to cut you down. You don't inspire me with confidence to see you dead. Just like that guy who came back from the dead."

Rei proceeded to cut Klyde's body into six pieces.

*whistled*

"We're done, time to go tell everyone it's over."

"What's over... Redblade brat?"

Rei turned and watched as the pieces of Klyde regenerated themselves, forming new bodies, in total six clones of Klyde were present before Rei.

Those bodies were more grotesque than the previous one, there were no clothes anymore, the skin was gray, there were blood vessels and black veins running through the body, the head of one of them was inverted.

Their swords grew so large that they formed new mini swords behind their arms.

These clones were Klyde.

Each one of them was just as dangerous as one alone.

And now Rei unleashed an invincible force.

◇◇◇

"Yeah!"

While Rei was busy with Klyde, Kurono was having fun with his new body jumping and running back and forth.

"This is the best!"

"The wind in my face, the breeze touching my nose and..."

"A bunch of people I'll crash into! Uwaah!"

He didn't realize that he jumped so much, he ended up going into an area where a group of scouts were.

As he fell, he tried to brake, but accidentally braking caused the ground beneath his feet to rise up arresting everyone to the dirt sandwich he caused.

No one survived.

After rolling like a hamster, he stood up and saw the mess he had made.

"Oh no..."

"Oh no... this is bad. I just accidentally murdered innocent people."

"I'm a murderer!"

"I haven't even been with a body for a day and now I'm going to be sent to the gallows! Uwaah! Rei, help me!"

"... Damn it."

While crying like a small child, Kurono noticed that among the rubble, a man was emerging.

He was covered in blood and his clothes were in tatters.

"A-ah. Let me help you."

He tried to approach the man, but quickly received a blow from a large sword that went straight for his head.

Kurono used his arm and the sword broke.

After looking at the remains of the sword, he noticed something strange.

The dead men who were buried were wearing black robes.

While the man in front of him was wearing furs and armor.

Then his brain analyzed the situation.

(Isn't this an enemy?)

(I have no idea who he is. But it's all very suspicious, my instinct says there's something very strange here.)

The man looked at Kurono with hatred, that's because his mission was ruined.

It was Regnas who cursed him.

"You fucking monster son of a bitch."

"You killed my entire army."

"You just ruined my mission and my plan."

"I'm going to kill you in revenge!"

Regnas proclaimed that, Kurono could only think.

(What luck!)

(I didn't murder anyone innocent, just a bunch of weirdos.)

(I didn't understand what he said, but he seems to be definitely an enemy.)

He got into an attack stance with a karate pose.

"Please let me test my fighting skills on you."

"It's unbelievable for me to say this but... this is my first time with a man!"

"Sounds bad! I didn't mean it! But I'm clearly talking about combat, so don't get any weird misconceptions! I like women!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

And so, the multiple battles of this day began.