"Emi..."
Emi's body was floating while her hair sprawled around. There was a dark aura surrounding her and it seemed to be even stronger than Kai's power, and even stronger than the two trump cards of the two races!
Feeling the power surrounding her body, Kai's expression changed drastically. His face went from surprise to despair in an instant. It was too late, he couldn't do anything anymore.
The seed inside Emi's body had awakened completely.
Cursing himself for his weakness, Kai didn't stop Emi, she already sacrificed herself by awakening it, why would he stop her? To try and save her? Unfortunately, he didn't have the power to do that.
Emi turned around and faced Kai.
"Big Bro, I'm sorry for not following what you said."
She flashed a smile at Kai. The smile was full of sadness and melancholy but it also had acceptance. Emi had long since accepted her death so why not make it meaningful?
In just one smile, Kai felt all the emotions that Emi wanted to convey and it made him break down in tears. For the first time in her life, she had called Kai as big brother. Before this, she had kept a border between the two of them because of their parents and now, during her final moments could she be honest.
His family died because of him, his friends died because he couldn't protect them, countless people died protecting him, and now he was going to lose his little sister?!
Erina looked at the two of them in tears. She and Kai had been saved but at what cost?
"I'll end this for you now."
Emi was only a little past ten but she matured several times faster than the rest. She had grown seeing the people around her die.
She waved her hand to disperse the incoming attacks and then waved another hand to deal severe damage to the ships. Just one attack and it nearly destroyed the entire hull.
The angels and demons were alerted and quickly flew to the sky to attack them. On the left, hundreds of white wings covered the sky while on the right, hundreds of black wings.
They all attacked at the same time but Emi didn't lose her calm, she raised both of her hands to block all of the attacks and then wiped out all of the ones flying with a single move.
This was SSS-class, the peak of humanity! Since time immemorial, there had been no records of humans reaching this level, the power compared to SS-class couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath. This was the absolute limit of the human body.
A tear streaked down Emi's cheek as the ships—the trump cards of the two races were shot down from the sky. She glanced at Kai and Erina behind her and then headed straight to where the Demon King and King of the Gods were fighting.
It was futile for her to join in the fight but she only had a little bit of life left, shouldn't she use it to the fullest?
The tear-stained face of Emi was the last Kai saw her alive. In a few days, he would find her corpse withered and dry before turning into ash.
Surrounding her were the corpses of angels and demons numbering in the hundred thousands. Kai howled in pain as he tried to embrace whatever was left of Emi in his arms.
The number she killed was enough for the humans to make a small counterattack and it even turned the tide of war for a few months. Many humans found hope, Emi became the trigger of the humans' counterattack.
All of a sudden, the nightmare changed and Kai was now looking at the figure of Emi with her back turned while sitting on the floor.
As Kai neared her, she turned around and revealed that her eyes were gone with blood seeping out of all her orifices.
"Brother... WHY DID YOU LET ME DIE?!"
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Kai sat up with cold sweat pouring down his forehead and back.
"A nightmare... how long has it been?"
It wasn't since he had faced his fear of the cold.
(A/N: Chapter 27, pretty far back.)
Looking around the ship's room, Erina and Amelia had already left. Amelia's condition had stabilized and she wasn't in fear of the royal family anymore, they were out of the continent after all.
Kai stood up, cleaned the sweat from his body and changed his clothes, and made sure his transformation hadn't been removed.
He was still pretty shaken about the nightmare. It was one of the memories tormenting him after all.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
He had many things to have nightmares about but few left him like this. After calming down, he decided it was best to head outside and look for everyone before going to work.
"Ah, Sir Tatsuya, I've sent word back to the continent."
While looking for the others, Kai encountered Syl again. It appeared that she was listening in on the conversations around her.
"I'm guessing... a girl has caught Lion's fancy- no, that can't be, he is very faithful to his wife after all."
Seeing Syl's face turn icy cold right in the middle, he had to stop himself. He was cruel to Lion but he wasn't cruel enough to make his wife stab him.
And if he hadn't stopped, he felt like the woman in front of him would use all of her power to kill him.
Lion is fierce and unruly, Syl on the other hand is quiet and composed, them being husband and wife felt peculiar to those who know. What many didn't know because Syl was quite reserved, only someone with a personality similar to Lion would be a match for him.
In her younger days, Syl was known as the White Calamity. Her white hair which symbolized her use of light was a symbol to others that she was peaceful at heart because those who used light generally disliked conflict.
But whoever had fought against her knew, far from being peaceful, she was merciless and wouldn't think twice about killing someone who antagonized her. It was Lion who finally managed to tame her by beating her in a battle.
Of course, neither of them had spoken a word to Kai of this. It was only in the future did he know of these matters when Lion had brought it up in his drunken state.
"Alright, I'll go look for everyone else now."
"Yes, goodbye."
Syl's expression gave Kai the chills despite there not being the slightest shred of anger on her face.
A woman's jealousy was terrifying.
Leaving that thought behind, Kai met up with everyone doing their own respective things. Yoko was training her body, Kei, Date, and Arata were competing in fishing. Sachiko and Iori who had tagged along currently assumed the role of a master and her servant.
Sachiko was sitting on a folding chair which was one of the best-selling items of Superbia to noble women who liked outings. Iori was beside her with an umbrella and a fan which were also items of Superbia, they were the only ones who had the power to mass-produce this type of strange item without calculating the risks after all.
Iori held the umbrella above Sachiko while he was exposed to the sun. He held the fan in his other hand and looked like he was about to cry.
Ignoring them, Kai looked at Erina and Amelia who appeared to be just casually chatting with those who initiated conversations.
After seeing everyone and letting them know of his plans for the day, he went back to the room and began writing.
He dipped the quill in ink and began writing. He had the capability to produce modern pens but doing so would undoubtedly cause the balance of the market to heavily shift into his direction and bankrupt many companies.
He didn't want to break this world, he just simply wanted to thrive without harming it.
"The Hero Summoning..."
A sudden thought occurred to Kai as he was researching runes. He had seen the magic circle used to summon heroes before and he had confidence in completing one but there was always something strange about it.
Though he did know how to make one, he did not know what most of the runes inscribed on the magic circle meant.
"Need help?"
Reo popped out in front of Kai.
"Do you know these?"
"...Ah, those are ancient runes. I only know the meaning about three of them though but can't you just bridge the gap of the languages with your own ability?"
He had seen Kai solve problems before. Kai hadn't lacked in doing math, science, and other studies even if he was invested into magic. That was because through them, Kai had inspiration to make new attacks.
Kai remembered problems from Earth and without formulas, he derived them and solved them without a calculator in an instant, his brain was that advanced.
"I probably can but why take the hard way if I have somewhere to take it from?"
Reo smiled wryly.
"Alright, I'll teach you a little bit."
Reo created an illusion of the runes he knew in mid-air and broke them apart into several pieces.
"Still, you told me that a single ancient rune would allow me to gain a huge boost in power but you actually know three? Why haven't you told me before? And, you even said that you didn't know any."
"My memory is still mostly foggy, I can only remember them if I see them again."
"How convenient."
Kai said sarcastically.
"Do you want me to teach you or not?"
"I do."
Reo sighed. Kai was thick skinned after all.
"Listen closely, this first ancient rune is separated into five strokes. Each of these strokes represent a meaning but alone, they don't have any value. Only when they are united to form a perfect rune do they hold power. This first stroke on the top means 'force' and the stroke directly below it means 'disperse', these two compliment each other in the way that the second stroke cancels the first stroke's power after it is used."
Reo then focused his attention on the middle stroke.
"The one connecting these two is 'halt' which limits the two from interacting. These two on the side are those that hold the true power, 'push' and 'pierce'."
Reo waited for Kai to digest the information but what he said next blew the former's mind.
"I see, so this is one of the most crucial runes of the hero summoning circle, the first stroke gives power, the fourth stroke pushes the power, the fifth stroke helps the transferred power pierce through, and disperse stops the connection after it has achieved its goal. The halt stroke just stops them from damaging each other unnecessarily."
"You... Ha..."
Reo sighed. He was asked to explain but in the end, Kai deciphered the meaning about why the rune was used there in the first place.
"Doesn't that mean that this one is completely useless in weapons?"
"Unless you manage to remove the disperse and halt stroke, then yes."
A rune was something created from the past, you couldn't create a new one. It was basically an alphabet and just guessing a random scribble and passing it off as an alphabet wouldn't work. That meant that if Kai just erased the two strokes, then the rune wouldn't function anymore. He had to figure out the correct positions.
The two of them talked to each other about the three ancient runes but in the end, none of them could be used by Kai but now, he had a deeper understanding of ancient runes. He couldn't retrieve Reo before the war in the other timeline so they lost connection to each other for good, if he had gotten Reo, then maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have lost so badly.
The following nights after that was hell for Kai, he kept having nightmares consecutively and the worst part was that all of them were heavy matters in his heart. In the end, he stopped sleeping for an entire week until they reached the other continent.
He faked sleeping so Erina and Amelia wouldn't worry but during the duration of their travel, Kai had always stayed in his room other than to check on everyone.
Soon, they arrived at the third human continent, the Ancient Dragon Continent.