“I did not expect to find a royal knight here," Kurai observed, landing on the ground in the small crater, right behind the knight that stood in the center of it.

The knight clearly expected him, not being surprised in the slightest. The crater they stood in seemed to be surrounded by an elevated area, covered by tall trees that reached high into the sky, most having vines hanging down from them. No plant life could be seen inside the crater, simply being covered by a thin layer of sand from one end to the other, traces of mana still present in the sand.

The knight wore a golden armor, a red cape slung behind him. His helmet covered his entire head, a large red feather attached to the top of the helmet, a mana-steel sword on his hip. "I expected you to be eaten before you even made it here, but it appears you survived," The knight mumbled in a threatening voice. “A pity you have to die in such a place, you don’t even look old yet."

“Oh? You feel like you can kill me?” Kurai questioned.

“You underestimate a royal knight," the knight grunted.

“And you overestimate yourself by a great deal if you think you stand any chance," Kurai informed.

The royal knight raised his sword to the side of his head and tilted his body forwards. Kurai gestured him to attack with all he has, showing no sign of hesitation. In the next instant the royal knight teleported to right beside Kurai, swinging his sword towards Kurai’s head. Raising his left hand with his katana Kurai blocked the attack, not even breaking a sweat.

The royal knight leapt backwards, but Kurai didn’t let him get away. As the royal knight landed on the ground Kurai used quickstep to get to him and punched him in the abdomen with his right hand. The royal knight reeled back from the blow and swung his sword in an upwards arc on instinct. Kurai dodged the attack by sidestepping, tossing his katana from his left towards his right hand.

The royal knight performed a horizontal slash but Kurai deflected it with his katana, hitting the knight’s head with a swing of his left hand. The knight brought his sword down at Kurai but Kurai pushed the sword to the side with his bare hand, only contacting the blunt side of the sword, punching the knight’s helmet right after. The knight instantly swung his sword in a horizontal arc but Kurai dodged it by lowering his body, hitting the knight’s head with an uppercut. The knight fell to the ground, looking towards Kurai from there. While his helmet hid his face, the rage seemed evident from the knight’s grunting.

“Draconic Power," The knight called out.

The knight quickstepped behind Kurai from the ground, slashing towards his back. Kurai blocked the attack by bringing his katana behind him, glancing at the knight from the corner of his eye. Turning around he pushed the knight’s sword to the side with his katana, spinning his katana in his hand and raising it to by his head, before slashing the knight’s chest with a horizontal slash. The knight staggered back a few steps in pain before regaining control of his movements.

“Flame Magic: Fire blast rain.” He changed as he raised his hand to the sky. Many red magic circles appeared in the air, raining flame blasts at Kurai.

“Destruction sword style: Whirlwind." Kurai mumbled as he raised his katana to his side.

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A black whirlwind formed around Kurai’s katana as he swung it upwards. The swing unleashed a dark whirlwind, slight red sparks visible in it, seemingly deleting the flame blasts and magic circles as it collided with them, destroying them completely. The royal knight looked to the sky in horror as the whirlwind slowed down before disappearing.

“Destruction Attack," Kurai mumbled.

The royal knight looked in front of him to stare right at Kurai, a thin stream of blood flowing from the royal knight’s helmet as he fell to the ground. A puddle of blood formed around his body, the blood flowing from the hole in his chest, right where his heart would have been.

Kurai flicked the blood off his arm and wiped the remaining off it into a handkerchief. He looked at the body thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging and returning towards Kesshō. He arrived much earlier than he expected to, and witnessed nearly half her battle, though he chose to remain out of sight.

After Kesshō defeated and absorbed the last chimera Kurai walked up to her, watching sit down on the ground. Kesshō instantly snapped her head towards him in alarm, though her expression quickly returned to a calm one on seeing him. She quickly got back on her feet and walked to Kurai, stopping right in front of him. He patted her on the head with a smile as she snuggled up to him.

“A royal knight out here, controlling the chimeras,” Kurai muttered to himself. Chimeras are known to be the lowest level of hybrids, the ‘Imperfect Hybrids’ as they call them. What would a royal knight be planning to do with an army of chimera, or was he here on someone else’s orders? Things might just get interesting at this rate.

Kesshō tilted her head slightly at Kurai, tugging on his sleeve.

“So, where do you want to go now?” Kurai asked thoughtfully.

Kesshō shrugged, having no clue where to go, not a surprise to Kurai.

“Perhaps we will just go to the nearest settlement, if there is an adventurer’s guild there then we might as well take another quest,” Kurai suggested looking east. “Let’s get moving then.” Kurai started eastwards, gently tapping Kesshō on the head to follow. She walked right beside him, kicking around small rocks that were in the path.

“Kesshō?" Kurai called after they were out of the village.

Kesshō turned to him and tilted her head.

“Have you heard of Celestia?” Kurai inquired.

Kesshō shook her head with a sad look.

“It’s a mysterious organization that works on a multi-world level. There are two very important people of Celestia, its founder, about whom I know very little, and the Princess, who I know a decent bit about. While the Princess’s feats are spread far and wide, the founder chooses to remain in the shadows, quite strange considering the princess is supposed to be lower in rank. She is a Krystallite too, just like you, but weaker than you, at least the last time that I saw her,” Kurai explained.

Kesshō nodded with an expression that suggested interest in knowing more.

“The reason I am telling you all this, is the fact that the Princess died not a great many years ago,” Kurai sighed.

Kesshō’s expression instantly changed to one of shock.

“Though I am not certain, I have reasons to believe they are attempting to bring the Princess back to life, or create a clone that is equal in power, if not stronger. Celestia has the highest authority and power in every world it has its reach in, and every person and kingdom in that world is subject to its indirect rule. I suspect that those chimera were the doing of Celestia, and the reason why everyone in the village disappeared is that they were used for Celestia’s experiments, and turned into Chimera in the process.”

Kesshō’s expression slowly turned into one of anger than shock, a tinge of sadness present for the cruel fates of everyone in the village.

“These are all just theories however, I have no evidence to believe it truly was Celestia behind all of this. Afterall, it is known to have freed many worlds from unnecessary wars and all kinds of other troubles, there aren’t any extremely high taxes or demands either. So far, it is recognized as the Kingdom of Gods due to the help it has provided to many worlds.”

Kesshō seemed to calm down slightly on hearing this.

Regardless of their great achievements, I choose not to trust them, everyone and everything is a tool for that guy afterall, even their own Princess, Kurai thought bitterly to himself, not planning on informing Kesshō of this. Seems like things will be getting interesting much sooner than I expected.