Don't ask how, but despite the fact that dozens of doors opened in the walls around them, when it was time to leave everyone went out through the same one. Furthermore, the door on the exit side was much more spacious and comfortable.
Not only that, but even though Kaito had traveled several thousand kilometers before, when it was time to leave the walls were only a few hundred meters away from the center of the room.
With all that, Kaito simply shrugged and blamed alien technology.
Once outside, they found themselves in a sort of waiting room. At least he was grateful it wasn't the same low table with sofas on both sides as always. It was more like a giant hallway, an enormous room with a ceiling several meters high and seats for everyone. Built entirely from ancient stone-colored bricks resembling Greek architecture.
But more than that, Kaito looked at the other participants already there with curiosity.
There were some interesting characters.
First of all, the most noticeable one, literally an enormous red sapient creature with horns, ten meters tall, possessing an intimidating appearance and armor that seemed to be made of obsidian. In addition, it appeared to have lava veins running through its body that glowed with every breath.
Then there was a girl, a girl who looked strange. Kaito couldn't quite identify why. She was simply a girl sitting there, smiling kindly at anyone who looked at her. She wasn't particularly pretty, nor ugly, just average, but she somehow felt unreal. Using his senses on her, Kaito finally realized what seemed wrong, she wasn't real. The only real part of her was a small spherical device floating near her head, everything else was a projection.
'An AI? Or perhaps a digital being' Kaito guessed. If everyone had been invited here like Kaito had, then that had to be, in some way, her real body.
The next one caught Kaito's attention because of how strange it was, as it was a creature he had never seen before.
It was some kind of muscular gorilla with enormous forelimbs that were almost larger and thicker than its entire body, while its much smaller hind legs gave it a slanted back. However, that was where its similarities to a gorilla ended. It was completely blue, with long fur reaching the floor while somehow remaining clean, large ears just as long as its fur, and finally a thin tail that seemed out of place, ending in an arrow-shaped tip.
Then there was a person, something Kaito could only describe as a conqueror. Whether it was his posture or appearance, he reminded Kaito of beings like Thanos or Darkseid. He was taller than the average human but not a giant, around two and a half meters perhaps, with charcoal-dark skin and armor of the same color covering him. Compared to the others, his appearance wasn't especially intimidating, but it was his aura that set him apart, a dangerous and restrained aura, the kind possessed by someone accustomed to giving orders.
Then there was a blonde woman with a supernatural appearance whose identity was easy to infer thanks to the halo above her head and the white wings on her back.
Speaking of blonde girls, there was someone there Kaito recognized, a small golden-haired girl dressed in black clothing with the appearance of a gothic lolita. Kaito easily recognized her as Darkness from To Love Ru.
Then there was... himself. Someone there had exactly the same appearance as him. Kaito had seen him take on other people's appearances before, so he knew he must be some kind of doppelganger. Apparently he noticed Kaito looking in his direction and decided to play a prank on him, even waving and smiling the moment Kaito looked at him.
Kaito ignored him and moved his gaze to the next one.
This one was curious, a small black cat, quite cute as well. Kaito hadn't seen it use any abilities before and its appearance was that simple, so there was nothing Kaito could analyze.
The next one was the slime sphere Kaito had seen earlier, which turned out to be quite powerful thanks to its ability. Kaito had only seen it use one ability, but even so it was impressive enough to remember because it was similar to one of the Rinnegan's powers. By spinning backward on itself, it could generate an attractive force that pulled everything around it in, and by spinning forward it could repel them. There was no need to spin every time. Once it had done so, the force continued to function as though spinning only changed the effect. Furthermore, it could divide itself into smaller forms with the same abilities, although its mass was split when doing so, giving it a limit.
Besides these, there were many others. Some had animal appearances, such as a giant snake or a crow. Others looked more human, such as one Kaito associated with a Greek god. Finally, there were some truly strange things, such as what was literally a two-dimensional figure.
But before Kaito could continue paying attention to the others, the walls around them collapsed, revealing that they were once again inside an arena, one resembling a Roman coliseum.
'Before it looked like Greek architecture, and now we're in Rome? Looks like Lala needs to study more history' Kaito joked to himself, easily guessing who was responsible for the current situation.
In the distance, on a high balcony, stood the Deviluke royal family, consisting of the king of the galaxy Gid Lucione Deviluke, the queen Sephie Michaela Deviluke, the first princess Lala Satalin Deviluke, and the second and third princesses, the twin sisters Momo Belia Deviluke and Nana Astar Deviluke.
The appearance of each of them was equally impressive, from the king's imposing presence despite looking like a young adult, to the queen's hidden beauty.
While observing them, Lala noticed his gaze as well and greeted him from afar, raising a hand and waving enthusiastically.
Kaito was about to wave back when he felt the far-from-friendly gazes of everyone around him.
'What's going on?' he wondered with a frown.
"Contestants, perhaps you already know this, but each of you is the most powerful person on your planet. At least within this Gaia System."
The situation was interrupted when the king of the galaxy spoke, drawing everyone's attention.
"At this moment, gathered here are the 317 most powerful Lords in the entire galaxy.
Out of the galaxy's 317,000,000 planets, only the strongest Lord from each one was summoned here. But based on strength alone, only one out of every thousand people was chosen to come here.
Finally, those 317,000 people fought until once again only one out of every thousand remained.
As for the purpose of this trial, I believe all of you already know it, but..."
Gid stopped mid-sentence, and with his vision Kaito could clearly see it was because Lala was whispering something to him.
"Right" the king murmured, nodding at whatever Lala had told him.
"Then, since all of you already know why you're here, there's no need to waste time explaining it. You only need to know that the winner among all of you, whoever manages to reach the end of all the trials, will receive my full support and that of all Deviluke technology and resources. Though there is a price."
The king left that declaration hanging in the air, making Kaito wonder whether everyone except him knew why they had been summoned.
Although, thinking about it in retrospect, perhaps only he would travel to another planet and stand before the king of the galaxy without knowing the reason.
'No, it's Lala's fault for not explaining.'
After mentally blaming Lala, Kaito returned his attention to his surroundings. At some point, enormous boxes had appeared there, 317 of them to be exact, one for each person.
"Third trial, survive and, if you can, win."
Once he said that, without explaining anything else, Gid looked toward one side of the venue beyond the coliseum and nodded.
Immediately the boxes disappeared, revealing what had been inside.
They were enormous wolves, twice Kaito's height and several meters long. Made entirely from a mixture of fire and shadows, alternating between black and violet while burning.
"Grrrrr."
The wolves released threatening growls as they looked at the people before them like prey, then almost simultaneously leapt forward and opened their enormous jaws, intending to end the fight in a single attack.
Faced with the creature before him, Kaito simply moved forward, dodging its teeth, and struck its body, sending it flying several meters away.
"Awooooo!"
However, from that single blow Kaito immediately realized how powerful the creature was. He realized he hadn't injured it. He had barely pierced its defense and only managed to send it flying through sheer force.
Just as he expected, the wolf immediately got back up, looking at Kaito with a bit of caution.
Within seconds, Kaito used several types of magic on the wolf, but most proved almost completely ineffective.
The same went for fire and water. It was completely immune to one, while the other evaporated before even touching it.
Air was useful mostly as a form of telekinesis against the wolf. The attacks couldn't penetrate its defenses, and at most he could move it around or throw it elsewhere. Even so, it caused no real damage.
Earth proved even more useless.
When Kaito conjured several meteors and hurled them at it, the shadow wolf easily dodged all of them, while the ones it couldn't avoid were pulverized by its jaws before it looked at Kaito even angrier than before.
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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)