If Kai had to describe the taste of the Miracle Bead, he would say it faintly tasted of honey, sweet and had a strong kick to it. Actually, there was a little more. Maybe honey mixed with a large amount of caffeine and steroids.

Failure's form shimmered before Kai's eyes as his hand connected with the glowing man's for only a split second before it disappeared. Not even a second later, Failure flashed Kai a small grin as he completetly vanished.

Then...

There was no then, nothing happened. Everything was quiet for some reason, there wasn't any sounds of fighting behind him, almost as if all the abominations were dead. All that remained was an eerie silence and a strange amount of sniffling and sobbing coming from various areas behind him.

What-

Just as Kai was about to turn around to see what the hell had happened, a golden shockwave erupted from his chest, shooting throughout the forest and hitting against anything physical. The trees surrounding him had their bark cracked upon impact as countless beasts and humans let out muffled cries in response to the shockwave as they were flung like ragdolls.

Feeling something in his chest burn from whatever was happening, Kai couldn't help but groan. He was wrong, something was definitely happening, something extraordinary.

Kai's body started to slowly rise off the ground and into the air beside the Mother Tree as his body started changing.

Starting from his chest, Kai's body started to glow a light brown. The glow slowly started to turn solid as a set of armour that resembled the bark of the trees surrounding him started manifesting on his body.

Arms, legs, toros, every part of his body except for his head and hands became protected by the set of wooden armour. With the same small, intricate lines adorning it's body as Sofia's bow and Failure's countless puppets, Kai couldn't help but already feel familair with the suit of armour. The wooden armour was extremely durable and extremely plain, yet hid unimaginable power inside its hardwood body.

Kai's hair started growing in length at the same time. What was once a shaggy red mess from not cutting it since being in the white room was now some beautiful luscious locks that reached down past his shoulders and fluttered in the soft breeze. Honestly, girls would be envious of how incredible Kai's hair now looked. His hair was a dark ruby colour and each strand of his beautiful red haircut was as pristine as thread of spider silk.

On top of Kai's new head of hair was a crown of thorns, a mix of green and brown. In comparison to the crown Failure's puppet wore earlier that protected the army of beasts and humans, this crown looked much cheaper and had less of a presence, but it still had a certain aura to it.

And the final part of the transformation was a basic wooden sword, but Kai couldn't help but swallow when he looked at. Life Eater was sharp, there was no doubt about that. The blade had been a faithful companion with its plus seven strength, which wasn't actually that much, but the small boost it gave to Mana efficiency made up for that. But this blade, this wooden sword was much, much sharper than Kai's ugly blade.

The edge of the blade looked like it could cut through nearly anything without any trouble. Kai was even scared to touch it incase he accidentaly cut off a finger. Even with the unassuming wood it looked to be made of, Kai knew that if he were to fight someone who wielded this weapon that he would never even be able to put a single scratch on it.

The soft brown glow that was covering Kai's body slowly dimmed as the transformation finished. A tough wooden suit of armour, a new haircut, a crown of thorns and a powerful wooden blade.

Kai couldn't help but be in awe. Slowly, he lifted a hand up and softly poked one of the thorns with his index finger. Even when he only lightly touched the spike he could feel it dig into his finger, that's how it was . It was incredible...

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

So why did it feel so familiar?

Racking his brain, Kai tried to remember where he felt he saw this before, where the vague sense of Deja vu was coming from. He currently didn't have the minor memory enhancement that was offered by his tunic, but he had seen something like this before, right?

After only a moment, his eyes widened in shock as he realised-

The murals...

In the fourth and final mural in the tunnel leading to the Dome was a figure with long red hair wearing a suit of wooden armour and a crown of thorns on their head, they also had a plain wooden sword in their hand and had beautiful red hair that flowed down past their shoulders.

At first, Kai thought that maybe the person in the mural had lived a long time ago, maybe they were someone famous, maybe even a god in the past.

But now, Kai knew. A truth he did not want to accept as, quite frankly, it creeped him the fuck out.

The figure in the mural, was himself.

Kai shivered. What the hell was going on. A mural that had been created at least thousands of years ago had somehow depicted him in his new fused with Failure state. That itself was something that shouldn't even be possible.

But it was.

How was that even possible though? Who was it that painted the murals? How on Earth did they know that Kai-

"The murals? Hmm, I suppose it is yu in the fourth one, so I understand why you would be surprised."

Kai froze at the familair voice in his head, only this time it wasn't the feminine voice of the system that he was used to hearing.

"Failure?"

Even though Kai couldn't actually see the charismatic man, he could almost hear the grin in his signature charismatic tone.

"The one and only, I'm quite surprised to see this actually worked. I had thought your soul would just give in instantly after i shook your hand."

At this point, Kai had nearly died so many times that he was immune to feeling worried by the thought.

Actually, that was a lie, death still scared him, of course it did, no one wanted to die after all. Death was an incredibly scary thing that he wished he would never have to go through.

"And you didn't think to tell me?"

Failure remained silent for a moment before chuckling and answering in a calm tone.

"You seemed so confident that it would work, and I didn't want to burst your bubble, nice saying by the way, and we would all be dead if it didn't work anyway. The Demon would have just slaughtered us all."

Kai wasn't in any mood to argue back, it would just make him even more upset. Plus, Aldred was still struggling against both of the full moon abominations.

But there was one problem.

While Kai had acquired some new cosmetics and a pretty new haircut, that was all he had gained. No new skills, no increased stats, nothing.

"Uhh... Failure-"

As if reading his mind, as he probably was, Failure responded instantly.

"Apologies. It seems that while you normally borrow the powers of beasts and other beings, the current situation is slightly different. Instead of borrowing just the powers, you borrowed me in general. Meaning I'm just a spectator in your body while I retain all my powers."

Kai's eyes widened in horror as Failure shut his mouth.

"What! So I have to fight the Demon without any power ups? What the hell was the point of this? All I get is a new haircut? This situation is probably even worse than when we began-"

"Relax, my dear Kai, there's no need to work yourself up into a panic. There is a simple solution to this problem. Similar to your little goblin mode thing, all you have to do is take the back seat and allow me to take over."

Kai fell silent. It was a little hurtful that he himself wouldn't be able to do anything, but it's not like he expected to be able to fight the Demon in the first place.

In terms of skill, the Demon had him beat by miles. In terms of stats, Kai wasn't sure how many he would gain when Failure took over, but it would surely be a lot. But enough to compare to the Demon? Kai wasn't sure.

And while he had made a promise to himself to not run away and to not be weak anymore, one had to know their limits to grow. It was suicide for Kai himself to try to fight, so all he could do was put his trust in Failure like he had done many times before.

While it pained him to do, Kai knew what the right, and only, choice in the situation was.

"Fine, but Failure...

Make sure you win."

And for the first time ever, excluding goblin mode where it was still technically him moving, Kai's body moved without him controlling it.