Half an hour later all the soldiers were stationed inside the city. The normal inhabitants did not even need a complex explanation, the moment they learned that the previous Lord had been replaced they cheered with joy without needing to know who the new one was.
Kaito was at that moment in Aerial's office with Sonya and Korran.
As expected, neither Aerial nor any of his guards could defend themselves before dying to Sonya's claws.
Kaito did not linger much, after all, taking this city was only the beginning, the difference was that from now on they would split up.
Kaito's ten thousand men would be divided into two teams, fifteen battalions on each side, one going east and the other west.
They would only separate again whenever they encountered a city, since one battalion would stay there to take care of the entire process, while the rest advanced toward the next village. This way, the goal was to conquer the entire perimeter of the Black Forest and the entire low level zone.
Kaito's direct subordinates would go with them to avoid surprises, since there could always be something they did not know, some hidden danger. Although Kaito doubted that the low level zones had anything like that, it was not impossible for the mid level ones to have it and that, upon noticing something strange outside, they would decide to investigate.
Sonya and Elric would go mainly to force most of them to surrender at the beginning and then again at the end. That is, they would have two opportunities to surrender, one before fighting and another after seeing their strength. If they still chose not to surrender, then Kaito gave orders to kill all the soldiers even if they later tried to surrender.
The one who would coordinate all this would be Korran, who was the second in command of Kaito's army.
Meanwhile, Kaito would go to the territories of Eriri and the necromancer.
---
In a green plain a young man with glasses was practicing his abilities. He created different strange things with his golden energy before it disappeared.
His name was Aki Tomoya, who had been summoned to Gaia just like the other millions of Lords.
If there was something that set him apart, it was that during his second mission he obtained a unique ability.
Unique ability was a term invented by Tomoya himself thanks to his otaku knowledge. It referred to an ability completely different from the normal magic system, whose strength depended entirely on how the user used it.
His in particular consisted of a special energy that he could transform into whatever he imagined.
The only limitation he had was that his ability consumed a lot of mana depending on the power of what he created. Also, maintaining it cost even more mana.
That was why Tomoya usually practiced not only to reduce mana usage by leveling up his ability, but also because by using all his mana and waiting for it to regenerate, it increased a little.
It was very little, an almost imperceptible amount, but by doing it again and again it increased enough to matter.
Although this left him weak frequently, which was why no strong person would do this and risk being attacked during their period of weakness.
After running out of mana, while waiting for it to regenerate, he headed to the city lord's mansion.
The truth was that he was lucky, as soon as he was summoned he discovered that his childhood friend was right beside him, so they helped each other.
With both cooperating, they grew quickly. Although unfortunately it was not fast enough, since by the third week they encountered someone even more powerful.
Ironically, they lost precisely because of what Tomoya had, a unique ability. And it was because the one they faced was strong, yes, but more than that, she was unique, completely untouchable.
Even remembering it now Tomoya felt it was an absurd ability. It was not invisibility or teleportation. She simply disappeared from the world, as if she stopped being part of reality. Sometimes she did it only for people, she disappeared completely and no one could see her no matter what. Sometimes she did it for objects or attacks.
After the fight Tomoya deduced that her ability had two forms. If she chose for people not to see her, no one could detect her, no matter what ability they used to try. If she chose for objects and attacks not to see her, even if she was completely visible it was useless, any attack ignored her completely, whether with swords, magic or anything else.
The only way to find her was when she decided to attack, only then did she become visible and solid again. But there was no possible defense, since by becoming undetectable, when she attacked you it was because she already had a knife at your neck.
At least that was what Tomoya deduced from his opponent's fighting method.
She defeated them easily and, of course, both chose to submit instead of losing all their lives.
After that she disappeared.
Not in the literal sense. Sometimes she appeared out of nowhere, sometimes you saw things that made you realize she had been there, it was simply as if she was and was not at the same time.
After that they had seen each other only a few times and whenever she appeared it was only to tell them that she had conquered another village and that she wanted them to govern it.
Honestly, she turned them into something like her managers while she freely attacked the nearby villages.
While remembering this Tomoya arrived at the mansion, and after other unimportant things he went to have dinner, where he found Eriri.
"Are you still doing that training? It will not make you stronger, it is completely useless" she said while sitting at a long table in the dining room.
Tomoya smiled awkwardly.
"But even so I want to try" he replied sincerely while sitting in front of her.
Eriri only looked at him before pouting and pretending indifference. "Hmph, do not come crying when you get hurt"
Before Tomoya could respond a voice came from the head of the table.
"You two"
"Pfttt" Eriri almost spat out her food in surprise.
"Kato, how long have you been there?" Tomoya asked, also surprised.
"I was here the whole time" he responded monotonously.
"Your ability is amazing, I did not even notice you" Tomoya said despite being used to it.
"It is not that amazing, only a little useful" Eriri said.
Kato only looked at her without changing his expression for a few seconds.
"I-it is very useful" Eriri finally said, giving up.
But in that second when she spoke, Kato had already disappeared with a serious expression.
Just in time for, with a thunderous sound and a burst of air, another person to appear in the room.
Both of them stood up in alert instantly.
Eriri threw a spear made of light, while Tomoya created a shield to defend them both.
"I am looking for a girl who is very good at hiding, do you know where she is?"
Kaito simply dodged the spear with a smooth movement and asked his question.
But he did not need an answer when he felt a knife breaking against his chest.
Although his body did not take any damage, Kaito was surprised by the girl's stealth ability, capable of attacking him without him noticing her before she disappeared again.
Kaito used all his senses, but even then he did not see her. Not even his true sight ability could find her.
Of course, that did not really matter, since he knew she was inside the room. An area attack was enough.
He simply destroyed the entire room with fireballs, while Eriri and Tomoya could only dodge in horror. Kaito continued until finally something moved in a strange way, as if it had collided with something invisible.
Before anything else could happen Kaito was already at the place, but even then he did not touch anything.
Even though not even a millisecond had passed, there was nothing.
However, Kaito had an idea. He took out his sword and stabbed the spot.
The sword did touch something, at least for a millisecond. Although Kato appeared in front of Kaito eventually, the sword simply passed through her as if she were intangible.
This confirmed that it was a passive ability that activated automatically, since Kaito had done it in his temporal perception, meaning that in normal time only a few milliseconds would have passed.
This confirmed to Kaito more or less how her ability worked. When she was invisible she could not dodge attacks, but she could dodge people. She was not only invisible but untouchable. And when she dodged attacks she became visible automatically, which probably meant she could not dodge people.
In addition, the change between one state and the other was completely automatic.
So, Kaito only had to make both attacks at the same time. With one hand he grabbed the place where her neck was, while with the other he held his sword pointing at her heart.
As expected, faced with simultaneous attacks of both types her ability failed, switching between both states quickly.
In the end, instead of dying, she simply disappeared from the place again.
This time not visually but literally teleported far away. Knowing that it was not because of her ability, Kaito assumed it was due to some item, like her guaranteed survival ticket from last time.
Returning to normal time perception, Kaito turned his attention toward Tomoya and Eriri, who were trying to leave the room.
Appearing in front of them, Kaito grabbed them by the neck and, without giving them the chance to speak, lifted them into the sky.
Both tried to defend themselves, but their abilities were useless against Kaito's body.
They finally stopped struggling when they ran out of air, and at that moment Kaito achieved what he wanted.
"I found you" he murmured as he followed the source of the evil he had just sensed, reaching a nearby area. As soon as he saw Kato, without giving her a chance, he repeated the last attack, aiming at her neck with his hand and at her heart with his sword at the same time.
Kaito confirmed that this time it worked when her body disappeared in pixels that rose upward as she vanished.
Proof that this time she really died instead of just escaping.
Knowing where she would appear, Kaito quickly went to the mansion lord's basement.
It was a stone and dark wood space too large and exaggerated for how empty it was, and right in the center a large shining sphere floated above a structure that held it, the core of the territory.
Leaving the stunned Eriri and Tomoya, whom he had picked up on the way before they touched the ground, he confronted the barely formed silhouette in front of him.
This time he did not attack immediately, he waited for her to surrender given the usefulness of her abilities.
In front of Kaito there was a Kato with her eyes closed.
The process of death and resurrection was almost completely immediate, what took a few seconds was regaining consciousness.
Returning to normal time perception, Kato opened her eyes to see Kaito in front of her.
Kato was quite perceptive, the moment she opened her eyes and saw him, Kaito received a notification.
[Lord Colorless Queen surrenders to you]
[...]
Kaito accepted everything, her surrender and the preservation of her territory.
Now being his subordinate, Kaito helped Kato, who was kneeling at that moment, get up from the floor.
"Welcome to my side, Kato" Kaito said simply with a smile.
"I will be in your care" Kato replied simply. "How did you find me?"
"Lala found you while hacking the system" Kaito answered honestly.
"I see"
"No more questions?"
"I can guess the rest"
Kaito nodded, knowing her personality. "Make a report about your territory, sub lords, location, size and everything else" he said finally.
"I already have one" Kato said before disappearing from the place and appearing a few seconds later with a folder in her hand. "Here"
"You already have one?" Kaito said surprised.
"I just prepare for the future" she answered.
Kaito looked through the report quickly, memorizing most of it. Thanks to her abilities, Kato knew the surroundings like the back of her hand, and there were even detailed plans of how she planned to control them.
It had to be said that her ability was truly divine, it was a shame that she lacked offensive power.
"I will need your help with something" Kaito said suddenly when he realized it.
Since he was going to go to the necromancer's territory, which he knew nothing about, having someone like her would be useful.
"But first, did you get anything from the Omnitrix you stole from me last time?"
"I can return magic" Kato said while explaining.
Basically it was a passive version of Kaito's ability.
While Kaito's ability needed to be activated and for a time could absorb all types of energy before releasing it in a devastating attack, Kato's could absorb magical attacks of a lower level than hers and return them instantly all the time.
"Good, you will help me tomorrow. For today, take care of informing everyone under your command about the situation"
"I will do that" Kato said and left.
After taking care of that, Kaito disappeared from the place to check how his army was doing.
Although he knew everyone's strength, this was the first large expansion so he was a bit worried, which was why he had been in such a hurry earlier.
However, the result of half a day of work surprised him greatly.
It was no exaggeration to say they never had a chance. In just one day they had already conquered more than ten small villages.
The southeastern low level sector had already been conquered, as well as the east, one village in the northeast, the entire south and, in the southwest, only one remained.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)