"Kai, did you prepare any countermeasures for『Anguish』?"

"Just let me take care of that, I have something for it. If he manages to use it on any of you, you'll all experience extreme pain unlike any you've ever felt before so remember to keep out of sight. Even if you attack him, be sure to not use your full force to not attract attention, only Erina and Amelia's attacks will do anything."

Arata being the tank naturally wanted to know what to do but it was true that if the Immortal wanted to destroy him, it'd be as easy as snapping his fingers but Kai was talking like they were going to fight a monster. Their enemy was a real person so those tactics might not work much. Of course, Kai was never wrong so far so he didn't ask anymore questions.

"Dear, you've been glancing around uneasily for quite awhile now, what's wrong?"

...How could she tell with my helmet on?

"Because I'm your lover after all."

If I didn't know any better, I'd say she could read minds...

"And no, I don't have the power to read minds. So, what's the reason?"

"Soon, we're going to be facing really troublesome skeletons that are too hard to slice and can absorb magic attacks to strengthen their already hard bones."

The conversation between them was low enough that nobody else could hear but Kai intentionally made his explanation louder, it's not like he should tell only Amelia.

"Found one."

A skeleton that looked like the rest was charging towards them. The only ones to react to it were Umi and Kai.

"Is this the type you were talking about? I feel a sort of feeling around it, as if the mana is being sucked in..."

"That's exactly it. These things need to be killed in one fell swoop."

Kai tapped his pendant and a shotgun shell-like bullet appeared in his hand. Kai's armor retracted itself up to his shoulder, revealing his left arm covered with skin. The skin from Kai's left arm opened a small chamber much to the surprise of the empress' party.

"You upgraded the skin?"

Erina asked Kai once she saw that.

"Yeah, now it won't rip as easily and I even made it so that I don't have to destroy it to open my arm's functions."

"Wait, wait, wait..."

On the other hand, Heliana was confused.

"Your left arm isn't real? Also, how did your armor suddenly retract itself like you rolled up a sleeve? Is it a magical device?"

Only Kai saw the empress personally and the others didn't know her face, when Kai first called her title, they were surprised but that wasn't the time to be dumbstruck. On the other hand, they were more surprised at her attitude, she was considered firm, righteous, and strict but her behavior today betrayed all of their images of her.

To others, the empress was a symbol of a true monarch who put her people first but showed no emotion for others to take advantage of her. Many looked up to her and even idolized her but seeing her behave today, it was evident that she was quite familiar with Kai, as if they always talked like that.

Of course, they weren't thinking in romantic terms, simply thinking that the empress was friendlier than they thought. The only person suspicious of the empress as a girl was Erina but she was suspicious of every girl so nobody really minded her when she became jealous... except Kai who was the target of her jealousy.

"Hmm... I'll tell you when we get back, the demons are still going to continue attacks after this and I'm technically still employed to the Empire despite all of this happening."

"Alright... But, We have another question, where is Duke Hyosuke of Mariko Palace?"

"I told him that he could focus on defending, he was left behind only about five thousand soldiers and he has to defend the entire capital himself. Of course, no humans will attack but in the event that demons were to sneak in, it would be troublesome with all of the country's powerhouses leaving."

"What of our Empire?"

Heliana was worried, of course she was. Even Kai was cautious and left an S-class to defend their kingdom but Heliana's place was basically open, she only left a few thousand soldiers behind because if the Immortal were to win, there wouldn't be an Empire but even if they won, if their kingdom is attacked then it would be disastrous.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I set up defensive systems in the Empire, anyone with ill-intent will be fried."

"..."

Not only Heliana, everyone who heard that felt cold sweat form on their backs. Kai made it sound quite nonchalant but he was talking about roasting not only demons but also people. Sure, they had their fair share of killing since in this world, it was necessary but those were quick kills, burning someone to death only happened against fire magic but even then, their opponents were granted quick deaths.

"Don't look at me like that, they'll be killed instantly even if the bodies will be left behind burnt. I wouldn't be so cruel as to set up fire that never gets put out... okay, maybe I am but I wouldn't use that all willy-nilly."

Seeing the suspicious eyes of everyone, he had to admit the truth. Their conversation sounded as if they were talking in a room jokingly but none of them stopped their movements for even an instant. Kai placed the shell into the chamber which made a clicking sound, he hid his gun and scythe then vanished from his position.

Appearing above the skeleton which hadn't sensed him yet, Kai punched the skeleton's head with his left arm accompanied by the sound of the floor below them caving in and forming an uneven crater. Not only the skeleton which had a tough armor, any skeleton within a five-meter radius around him was knocked back with quite the distance, those who were near died just from the shockwave.

One could only imagine how strong this blow actually was. It would be a different matter if he had punched the floor, many A and B-class could replicate his feats and some C-class could do so as well but Kai punched at least six feet from the air but it still created a crater several meters deep just with the pressure from the punch. Even Arata had no confidence in being able to take that blow. Frankly, they felt that it was overkill even though their opponent was already dead. The bones were smashed into smithereens, the skull took most of the damage and now it just looked like broken bones- you couldn't even tell what part they were from.

"I suppose that only Yoko could slice this thing in one attack with a sword right now. Compared to everyone else, her skill with blades is the best here but she'd have to expend a lot of her power, these things are harder than steel and could be as hard as diamonds."

Kai said as he stood up from the center of the chaos right beside the crater. 

"And since I'm here..."

Under everyone's gaze, Kai faced forward and went into a hand-to-hand combat stance. Breathing slowly and deeply, Kai changed his foot stance and then charged forward. His speed was amazing but what was even more amazing that with each step he took, he destroyed a skeleton. Without stopping or slowing down, he destroyed every skeleton in his path.

Two skeletons charged at him with their swords but Kai used a double clothesline and destroyed them from the center. Then, he twisted his body to dodge an incoming sword and sent out a fist in response which created a shockwave that further destroyed skeletons behind the already arriving one. Then, he grabbed a skeleton's arm along with its body and used it to ram many of the enemies. One skeleton lost its sword and attacked him with its fist, Kai caught the arm and pulled the skeleton close before employing an elbow strike to its skull.

But of course, they numbered too many. Kai slowed down while everyone approached him but then changed his stance again, he went from using his arms to his feet. He began kicking off the heads of skeletons with precision, he attacked vital points to skeletons like joints and the spine. Of course, he made sure to completely destroy them so they wouldn't regenerate. Once a tough skeleton with absorption came, Kai attacked it with magic which turned the bones into the color of steel then, Kai used his left leg and hit three areas at once, the head, the ribs, and the pelvis. With his insane speed, the gap between each strike was 1 millisecond and nobody could see his movements.

Then, he flipped his body upside-down and held himself up with his arms, he straightened his legs sideways and then began to spin so fast that he broke apart anything that came near him, those who were hit by his left leg broke completely. Kai then grabbed a nearby skeleton with his left arm and shattered it.

He doesn't show it often but when he does, everyone becomes dumbfounded. He used a variety of styles and didn't rely on his brute strength most of which weren't native to this world. There were only a few practitioners who used legs as their main combat style, they didn't even number 10% yet Kai somehow surpassed them and used kicking techniques far beyond what they knew.

This continued until they got to the gates of the palace, Kai continued on using close combat with varying styles but the one fact that didn't change was that every time he saw skeleton with absorption, he always attacked it with magic to turn its bones into steel. To anyone else, this was strange but Kai did it because a single kick would destroy the skeleton, he needed to make them tougher to use his techniques. This wasn't only him having fun, it was also him honing the skills he almost lost due to peace.

In the war, he had to fight constantly and had little to no rest. There were times when he was plunged into a horde of a hundred thousand demons or undead and sometimes even Gods which prompted him to learn how everything. He fought in a war nonstop for over a week alone and came back all bloody and bruised but everything was to make him stronger. Of course, everyone thought that he died but he had overwhelming tenacity, far more than the others had but his attacks lacked technique and, in the end, was his downfall.

Since Kai started close combat, the rest only had to deal with the skeletons at the side, Kai took care of everything, the amount of skeletons he destroyed numbered in the tens of thousands, though they got stronger each time, Kai still destroyed them with a single attack each. Ghosts couldn't do anything to his [Soul Aura] while Lesser Liches couldn't do anything to his insanely tough body and were destroyed.

Needless to say, everyone admired him further. This was actually the first time they saw Kai fighting against many enemies, the only real battle he had ever fought in front of them was against Hyosuke and it was obvious Kai held back as to not kill his opponent.

"Kei, Date, Umi, Natsumi stay with the empress' ten guards at the first level of the palace and prevent anything from getting up the stairs for ten minutes. Retreat if it becomes too much. The rest, come with me."

It was about an hour of silence but Kai issued orders smoothly. He cleared more of the path in front of them to the point that only scattered bones were left around them. It didn't look like they were created from inside the palace so they quickly cleared the entire front area and went in.

But just as they entered through the doors, a blood-curdling scream startled everyone. A shadow flew past them and Kai's head was decapitated and fell on the floor which prompted Erina to scream as well.