After a few minutes of waiting, Makima arrived, walking quickly with an annoyed expression that surprised Kaito, since whenever he saw her she usually had a gentle smile.
However, everyone around her moved naturally, bowing as they passed, giving Kaito the feeling that perhaps this was her normal attitude.
After arriving, she looked around with a frown before turning her gaze to the receptionist from earlier, who leaned toward her ear and pointed at Kaito with her eyes.
Makima looked at him, after thinking for a moment and confirming she did not know him, she approached and stood in front of him impatiently.
But, to her annoyance, Kaito did not turn to look at her or start a conversation, he simply kept playing with a kind of console she did not recognize.
"I do not remember knowing you?" she finally said, annoyed by his attitude.
At her question, Kaito finally raised his gaze, putting the console away into his spatial backpack.
"Really, but yesterday you told me to come see you?"
"'Yesterday'?" Makima repeated, searching Kaito's image in her memory when her eyes widened in surprise upon remembering the only person she had said something similar to. "Could it be... you are still alive?" she asked incredulously.
In reality, Makima was almost one hundred percent sure that Kaito was dead, this was because he had not shown up in more than a day. As literally the only survivor of the 'Operation, Assault on Hell', as the Union called it, of course she knew the result of the operation, and she also knew that a full day had already passed since the assault failed.
A day passed and Kaito did not come, of course she would believe he was dead, otherwise, with how much importance Kaito gave to Ai and the situation of her kidnapping, he would have definitely gone immediately to seek answers.
Makima had no way of knowing that Kaito had actually been frozen in time for an entire day.
Just like Kaguya's evolution required death to awaken, Kaito's required movement, just like Kaguya with death, Kaito's body released an energy that devoured all movement in Kaito's territory for an entire day before completing his evolution.
"I am alive" Kaito nodded before looking directly into Makima's eyes and forming a smile. "Looks like we have some things to talk about, right?"
...
"So you can change your appearance, huh? And enough for me not to notice."
In the office Kaito had been brought to once before, the one that belonged to Viktor, now Makima was behind the desk, looking at Kaito with interest.
"You would not happen to be Kaito, right? You give me a similar feeling."
Kaito did not respond, he simply raised an eyebrow pretending confusion.
Makima did not know whether he really was not Kaito or if he was just pretending, but she knew he would not tell the truth, so she stopped insisting.
"It does not matter" Makima shook her head. "But if you are not him, you should consider recruiting him, I can feel he is a demon at least one rank above mine, I will give you his data lat..."
"Makima, I did not come here to talk about recruiting people" Kaito interrupted coldly and Makima's expression hardened.
"Fine" Makima sighed. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything" Kaito replied immediately. "Everything related to Ai's kidnapping, what you have to do with it, why you were acting so strangely, the regressor, what that Union is that you kept mentioning again and again, everything."
"That is quite a lot" Makima sighed. "But I suppose we are on the same boat now so it is fair. Let me tell you a story from a long time ago, Lucifer.
More than 500 years ago, in the Middle Ages, when there were still knights in armor riding horses and castles with kings all over the world, someone appeared.
Fernando de León.
At a time when supernatural beings were in an open war with humans, a war we were losing, he appeared.
At that time they did not know it yet, but Fernando was a regressor, he came from a time where monsters had dominated the world and the few humans you encountered were called survivors.
Using his knowledge of monsters, their future actions and their weaknesses, he expanded his influence and guided humanity to victory, eventually turning humanity into the rulers of the world.
But even though Fernando had already succeeded, he did not disappear, he created a special force dedicated to containing monsters, controlling them, using their abilities for the benefit of humanity.
And he succeeded, the monsters that were once feared became nothing more than lab subjects with which humanity reached the next step of evolution, the monsters of today, despite living freely, truly lack freedom, at any moment that the force under Fernando's command wants to capture them, they can do nothing."
"What about the government? Does the government do nothing against such a force?" Kaito asked.
A force that not only controls all supernatural entities in the world but also uses them to grow stronger does not seem like something governments would just allow.
But at his question, Makima smiled.
"Government? Ha, you have no idea.
Let's go back about 400 years, as the force under Fernando's command grew more and more thanks to experiments on monsters, it expanded further, everyone wanted to be part of it, everyone wanted the benefits.
The group came to be called the Union, as for why it is called that, it is because most influential people around the world are part of it, nowadays, if someone runs for president, it is most likely because they heard rumors of the Union and want to be part of it.
Government? Under the Union. Presidents? Part of the Union. Law? The Union is the law."
Faced with such a revelation, Kaito did not know what to say, he was in shock, because this implied that Fernando de León was, in essence...
"The ruler of the entire world" Makima said, guessing his thoughts.
"But that is impossible, if something like that existed, there would be rumors, it is impossible for it to be so hidden."
Monsters? Full of myths around the world.
The supernatural side of the world? There are also rumors.
However, the entire world under one person's control? He had never even heard a conspiracy theory about it.
"Of course, there is a reason for that" Makima said. "The truth is that only those at the very top know the true scope and history of the Union, most people just believe the supernatural side of the world is that there are monsters and abilities out there.
But that... is exactly where I come in.
Rank 4 Demon: Control Demon.
You must have noticed that monsters are actually quite weak and even many Lords are too, many dying easily to simple weapons.
So why would the great families and high positions around the world, capable of deploying missiles and tanks, want to join the supernatural side if they think it is just monsters?
That is because I made them believe something else. Under my control, anyone who knows about the supernatural side of the world will automatically believe it is superior to anything in the normal world."
"You are talking about worldwide control?" Kaito asked, doubting her words, although it would explain many things.
"Why are you surprised?" Makima said. "You should know that among monsters, demons are the most powerful race that can be born, they are basically humans with abilities beyond everything.
Tell me, with your current abilities, if you were at one hundred percent on Earth, could you not kill the entire population in weeks?"
Kaito nodded at her explanation, realizing that demons were indeed that powerful, and Kaguya's recent birth as a demon only convinced him further.
She had literally killed two hundred fifty thousand people with a single move.
"Of course, even as a control demon, being rank four I am not that strong, controlling the entire world is impossible for me, still, a small suggestion like 'The supernatural world, no matter what, is more powerful than the normal one' with the effect of activating upon discovering its existence is possible."
'A small suggestion...on a global scale' Kaito repeated mentally, thinking about what he had discovered before and noticing the similarities.
But he quickly shook his head, Makima did not fit his previous analysis at all, so she was ruled out.
Even so, if this was not a coincidence, then it meant that the gods, for the second time, had copied something.
"Of course, I can control certain people depending on several factors, but regarding the Shinomiya, I did not do that, I only suggested them slightly to force them to act, of course, this was after verifying they would really do something like that and I was just speeding things up a bit, even so, I made sure they would subconsciously reject the idea of killing the girl Hayasaka, only if the situation were extreme would they reject the suggestion and dare to do it."
After Makima's extremely long explanation, where she basically cleared herself of harming Hayasaka, Kaito remembered something else she had said.
"So, what do you want in exchange for this and for taking my side?"
Makima smiled, having expected the question.
"Well, the Gaia system activated on several planets, right? In the end you will probably rule the entire universe. So you would not mind giving me...The Earth?"
If it were not for Kaito having 'Impenetrable Mind' active, which calmed any emotional state, he would have choked on air itself upon hearing such a shameless request.
"You want 'The' Earth?" he still asked in disbelief.
"That is right, a small planet like this would not matter to you, right? It is not like you will govern them all at the same time, think of it as a kingdom under the emperor's rule."
"But why? Why do you want Earth?"
Although in stories it is common to hear someone say they want to dominate the world, Kaito never thought he would hear it in real life, so he wanted to know her reason.
At this, Makima blinked, both surprised and amused by the question before speaking.
"Reason? There is none."
"No reason?"
"There is none, we are not in a story where everyone needs a reason to exist, right?
If you want an excuse you can blame my race, but since I was born I have always sought control over everything around me, I like having everything under my control, whether it is people, situations, even my future.
I even tried to dominate the world once, only for the Union to capture me before giving me the option to join them or die. Obviously I chose to join.
I worked hard to keep rising. To achieve having everything under my control. But that Fernando de León, honestly, is impossible to surpass on my own, so I realized I need help... and here we are" Makima said.
Although having no reason to want to conquer the world sounded strange, Kaito found it acceptable, compared to cooperating with someone shaped by life who might change sides with enough persuasion, working with someone like Makima, whose goal had always been the same and did not need a reason, seemed safer.
Thus, he agreed, of course not completely, while Makima could keep the planet as its rightful ruler, it would not only be under Kaito's command but also Kaguya's, since her plan was to expand the Shinomiya company across the entire universe in the future, a situation where the king and the merchant control different versions of the world, you could say, and neither has more power than the other.
After discussing this, Makima told him more about the internal situation of the Union for quite a while before Kaito decided he had heard enough and could leave.
Kaito learned many interesting and useful things, the most important being that although Fernando controls the entire world from behind the scenes, he is not actually in charge of everything.
While his orders are law and if Fernando says they will destroy the planet the next day, everyone would be boarding rockets toward Mars an hour later, with the size of the Union, whose reach is global, Fernando cannot handle everything.
There are many high ranking officials who manage different sectors.
Makima spoke of this part with disdain, since according to her, she would control everything herself, ensuring everything happens as she wants.
Leaving aside Makima's desire for control, this part interested Kaito, since it meant that perhaps that final world boss did not know about his existence.
To his disappointment, according to Makima, Viktor Asano was one of those high ranking officials, and although as a battle leader he was not as important, his death would still be impossible for Fernando to overlook.
At least something good for Kaito was that these high ranking officials were not always on good terms with each other, there were numerous factions within, and the fact that someone knows something does not mean the entire Union knows it.
An example of this were the two major civil wars within the Union in the years 1914 and 1939.
Finally, Kaito ended the information session for the day, having learned probably more than in his entire life and even invalidating most of what he had previously learned about history.
He stretched a bit as he stood up, having been sitting for quite a while, and prepared to leave.
But before he could, Makima stopped him.
"Wait, I forgot to tell you something" she said, catching his attention.
"What is it?"
"Actually, when I told you I like controlling everything, that was a lie, there is one exception" she said as she approached.
Kaito raised an eyebrow, not really understanding what she meant, to which Makima spoke again.
"Actually..."
______________________________________
Author's Note: Sorry for literally dropping a lore chapter right after another one, with lore about two completely different things but almost equally important. Looking back, it's obvious it wasn't a good idea, but when I wrote it I didn't think about that.
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)