Of course, Sarah and Gaby didn’t recognize the body that Selina pulled out.

How would they?

The Kai that Selina knew, and the one known by Sarah and Gaby had two different bodies.

After I got Selina to put away her…no, my corpse, the table sat in silence for a few moments, as everybody was bewildered to varying degrees.

Frustrated, Selina pouted while muttering something about how she was only trying to lighten the mood.

I sighed, and was about to speak, and tell Sarah and Gaby who I was, when Gaby beat me to the punch.

(Gaby) “Your name is Kai? And you’ve reincarnated? Does that mean…?”

I nodded, and motioned to a side door, leading out of the dinning hall, to a private room.

Sarah and Gaby got up, understanding my intentions.

We went into the room, which had a few couches arranged around a coffee table.

I sat on one side, and the two girls sat across from me.

With that, I took a deep breath, and begun explaining my circumstances to the girls, who had been looking at me this whole time with a mixture of confusion, anticipation, and joy.

(Kai) “Well, as you’ve already learned, I am a reincarnated being. More specifically, I am one who you have encountered before, while I was still on my first life. Back then, I was also known as Kai, but my full name was Kylar. Here, it’s Katariah. I guess, what I’m trying to say is, even though I am the same person, I have changed since that time.”

Silence reigned in the sitting room for a few awkward seconds.

(Gaby) “So…I guess you’re not my brother anymore?”

I shook my head. While it pains me, this is the best way. Essentially, with all I’ve lived through, and died from, I have become a completely different person than they had known. They need to see that, to accept the current me.

(Gaby) “Then, It’s nice to see you again, sister.”

Wait, what?

I stared at Gaby intently, while she smiled innocently. There was a sly look in her eyes.

Sarah laughed.

(Sarah) “Did you really think it was going to be that easy, Kai? We’ve wanted to meet you again, and now that it’s happened, you can’t just brush us off like that.”

I sat, slightly stunned at this sequence of events.

(Sarah) “Besides, we know you’ve changed. I certainly wasn’t expecting you to be a cute little girl when we met again.”

(Gaby) “And change is universal, right? Everybody changes, and while it might not always be to the degree that you have, who’s to say that we can’t keep up with how you’ve changed?”

(Kai) “No, but…I’m not the good person you once knew. I lie, I steal, I cheat, and I kill. Even knowing that, would you still say that I’m the same person? I'm not the Kai you knew anymore.”

(Sarah) “So? I’ve killed as well, and had bad things happen to me. I’m still Sarah though, just like you are still Kai. Just, a slightly older and more experienced Kai.”

I snorted. Slightly?

(Gaby) “If you weren’t the same person, they why do you continue to go by Kai? It’s no coincidence that that’s your nickname, after all, there are others that would make more sense for Katariah.”

I sat, deep in thought.

It was true that I continued to go by Kai, to keep that connection to my earlier lives.

No, I am the same person, even if my personality has changed.

I guess, I just don’t want to feel the guilt I have when looking at Sarah and Gaby.

I felt like I had abandoned them, for a few reasons. But, it doesn’t look like they hold me responsible—Sarah for my death, and Gaby for me failing to return, and leaving her alone.

Maybe this could work out.

(Kai) “Ugh. Fine. Lets see where this goes, no?”

I turned my head to the side so they wouldn’t see the tears gathering in my eyes, and blinked a few times to get rid of them.

Gaby smiled and laughed, and she got up to return to the dinning table. I went to follow her, but Sarah grabbed my arm.

(Gaby) “Is something wrong, Sarah?”

(Sarah) “No, you go on ahead. I just have something to discuss with Kai.”

Gaby looked confused, but still went.

I turned around, and faced Sarah, who had crossed her arms and was glaring at me.

Ah shit, there’s that guilt. And the anger I was expecting.

(Sarah) “Now then, Kai. Care to explain what had happened when you faced the demon king?”

Crap, she knows! I frantically searched for something- anything that would allow me to leave this place intact.

(Kai) “Ah, er…Well, we fought?”

Oh no. Now she’s smiling viciously, like she always had when we played chess.

I was never able to win.

(Sarah) “Really? Considering that the demon king was verified to have died of poison, I think it’s unlikely that you fought him.”

(Kai) “Uh, well, we fought, yes, but I never said I killed him…”

(Sarah) “Then you died fighting him?”

(Kai) “What? No. I was killed later. Wait, no—What did you hear? From your side of things, what happened?”

Something wasn’t right here. I mean, I thought she knew about it…

Sarah looked just as confused, also knowing that our views of these events aren’t lining up at all.

(Sarah) “Right. Well, first, you went with the other heroes to battle the demon king while I fought off his army. Then, you went in alone, and challenged the demon king to a duel, where he killed you. However, he also died of poison a little later, as the other heroes showed up too late to save you and fought against him as well. Unfortunately, the human army lost against the demon one, and I was captured. Shorty afterwards, I got summoned here.”

I had been shaking my head for a while now.

(Kai) “No, that’s not what happened. It is true that I went in alone, and fought against the demon king without the other heroes, but I didn’t die.”

I mockingly smiled, thinking back to the real sequence of events.

(Kai) “I was alone because the other heroes had run away, not willing to risk their lives against the demon king.”

Sarah looked shocked at this. She had been good friends with the other heroes, but still had never seen this side of them.

(Kai) “When I fought against the demon king, I found out that the king who had summoned us had started the whole war, looking to make slaves of the entire demon race. The demon king was only defending his land, and his people. He died of poison, yes, but the poison had been something in his blood since he was a child, and the source of his power. He died from that, and I heard his last words. When I left, I was cornered by the other heroes, and fell to my death, pushed off a cliff.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Sarah looked sad and angry after hearing my story. Luckily for the other heroes, she couldn’t get to them anymore, or they would suffer at her hands.

(Sarah) “Damn it all. I had counted them as friends. I had no idea, Kai.”

She didn’t apologize for accusing me of dying a pointlessly stupid death earlier, and I didn’t expect her to. In a way, my death that time had still been stupid. I should have noticed the avarice and malice in the eyes of the other heroes as they looked at me, and envied me my strength and good will.

I had been too trusting of others, and never stopped to question the things around me. My death at their hands cured me of that trust though, and I’ve had to work hard to even begin trusting people again.

Though I will say, that if we ever do meet again, Sarah isn’t the only one that can hold a grudge.

Sarah hugged me, letting me know that she was fine now, and we returned to the dinning room.

Or I did.

Sarah froze by the doorway, her expression showing signs of turning to sheer fright.

Everyone else at the table had stopped, with utensils half way to their mouths, and panic fixed upon their faces.

The reason for all this sat at the other end of the table, directly across from Flavius, who was at least frozen with an expression of faint dignity.

It was a man with pale white skin, and pure black hair running to his collarbones. A loose robe covered his shoulders, but left his chest bare. The robe was also black, and he was also wearing red pants. His feet were bare.

And even though he looked nothing like he had when I first met him, I recognize the aura surrounding him.

Immediately, I crouched low, and began to draw the new sword, Nightfall.

However, he just stared at me, and I abandoned all thought of doing so. I had gotten lucky fighting him the first time, but there wouldn’t be a second.

(Lich Toledo) “We meet again, little immortal. You may relax. I am not here to add you to my collection yet.”

His reassurance did me no good; in fact, it only made me more uneasy.

I growled out my response.

(Kai) “What do you want, then?”

I eyed the others in the room. They were still conscious, evidenced by the way their eyes were darting around, or watering slightly.

(Toledo) “I am only here to see your progress. And frankly, I am here to give you my apologies.”

(Kai) “Why?”

(Toledo) “Because my task was to guard the only entrance to the World Seal. Originally, I had wanted to make you my subordinate, but I had no idea it would go so badly.”

The lich, who had now assumed the from of a human, paused for a moment.

(Toledo) “I had underestimated you, little immortal, and paid the price. The thing I had determined to die guarding was broken, and by someone under level one hundred no less.”

He cast a quick spell, and I felt a weight lift from me somehow.

(Toledo) “I had hoped that my curse would prevent you from reaching the seal, but that had not been the case. You grew too quickly. Know that your life is safe from me, since you have greater responsibilities now. Take care of these lands, little immortal, with your wings of thunder, and scales of the heavens. Fare-thee well.”

He had lifted the curse cast on me, and left. I hope to never see him again—he’s too unpredictable.

As soon as he had disappeared, everybody collapsed downward, the pressure that had kept them upright having disappeared. Flavius was the first to be able to speak.

(Flavius) “Wa…What the hell was that man? What did he mean, little immortal, and with the wings and scales?”

I waited for everyone to settle down again, and noticed that nobody was touching the food anymore, their appetites gone.

(Kai) “That was…unexpected.”

For the sake of those who didn’t know the story yet, I explained how I had been lured to the bottom of a labyrinth, and nearly died to a lich.

(Selina) “Lich!? Lich my ass, that wasn’t a lich, it was a grand lich! How the fuck are you still alive?!”

I shook my head.

(Kai) “I don’t really know. I think it has something to do with what he said at the end, with the wings of thunder and stuff, but only because that’s the only bit I can’t figure out. As for the immortal thing, well, it’s because I’m immortal in this body. I think it’s from my father’s side of the family. I can still die, of course. Just not from age.”

It took a few minutes for the conversation to start up again, after that revelation. As it turns out, Selina had also become immortal, through sufficient mastery of magic. She basically told everyone it wasn’t as big a deal as it was made out to be—You only needed the right conditions.

Flavius decided that everyone had experienced too much excitement during the dinner, and called it a night.

I sighed, tired and worn out, but still full of energy.

I was the first to leave, and went straight back to the staff dorms. Of course, I wasn’t able to sleep, so I meditated.

I thought back on what the lich had told me, that I was now responsible for the continents. I understood what he had been telling me, that since I had been the one to break the seal, I was now the one who had the duty of seeing that nothing bad happened because of it.

I’m really becoming curious as to what had happened during the time I can’t remember, when I had somehow gotten away from the lich that first time.

I have a bad feeling though, that I was beginning to figure out exactly was occurred.

The scales, I have a good idea as to how they came about, due to the system message that had shown up right before I blacked out. The one informing me that an Overlay Sequence was starting. If that meant what I’m beginning to think it meant, then the bit about wings of thunder is a bad sign.

I never wanted to think about that life again.

No, Kai. Just push it from your mind. It never happened.

After calming down, I settled into the rhythm of meditation.

After a few seconds, or minutes, or hours, a ding sounded. A level up so quickly? 

No, it wasn't just a level up.

System Notification:Level Up

Threshold Reached: Level 75Class Change InitiatedClass has changed to: Quasi-Demon Lord