"Ohh, looks like they finished taking over the base. Hmm, didn’t they go overboard?" Kai returned to the pirate base to see it in ruins. He assumed only the arena would crumble, leaving the foundation of the base intact, but that wasn’t the case, though.
"Or maybe this was my fault? Meh, who cares?" Waving his hand to the side, he repaired the entire base, including the arena. When he entered the base, Kai returned all the people who were staring blankly at space to their normal, well, new selves.
When they came to their senses, they were all on the side of Cornelia and would be the new pirates Kai wanted them to be.
"Oh, Kai, you’re back. Is that Sweatii you’re carrying?" Amaya plucked the demon’s head to see if he was still alive.
"He’s dead, look." Kai showed her the hole in his chest.
Even though Kai had stuffed Sweatii in his inventory earlier, he took him out to show the demon off like a trophy to his companions.
Barry felt conflicted, a feeling he was getting too familiar with, and he didn’t like that. Kai wasn’t even the hero anymore, and his power didn’t decrease. He was extremely powerful, more powerful than anyone.
Sure, Barry knew Kai was the child of a god, no, the child of someone even higher than a god, but Kai himself was still human. Barry felt like he should be that powerful. He was a hero, a person who should stand at the top.
Kai always handled things with ease. He was on a vacation that happened to align with Barry’s journey.
’I’m going to defeat the demon king, and I’m going to do it without anyone’s help!’ Barry made up his mind and solidified his resolve. Nothing would stand in the way of his victory.
"Wow, look at this guy." Gwen slapped the demon across the face. "He talked so big only to die like a little bitch."
"Be real, Gwen. Do you know of anyone who could beat me?"
"The gods." She responded with a snarky smile.
"Okay, that’s fair." Divine beings were cheating, but Kai let it slide.
Since the base was restored, Kai also took the time to start redecorating. He consulted everyone to see what they wanted changed about the place. The overall thing they wanted was for the place to feel a lot more comfortable and not feel like a place full of pirates.
And so, that’s what Kai did. He turned the pirate base into a large community that resembled a town. Although the base already looked that way before to some degree, the gloomy feeling it had before was completely gone.
The arena stayed, though. Kai told everyone that it could be used as a training ground.
"Now that this base is ours and the pirates work for us, what do we do? Should I stay here to lead them?" Knowing that she would be leading the pirates after they defeated the demon king, Cornelia contemplated staying to have things flow in the direction she wanted or waiting until the demon king was dead to start adding her touches to the pirates.
"Don’t worry. I’ve already thought about that." Kai found Karlnut and introduced him to the crew. He was hypnotized to follow every command that Cornelia gave him and would be the second in command of her crew unless she wanted someone different.
"So you found this guy in the arena and thought he would be a good second in command?" Sasha asked in a joking manner
"What’s so funny?"
"It’s just that you saw someone who’s good at fighting and instantly thought he would be good at managing a pirate empire instead of questioning the hundreds of other people here to see if they have expierence managing...all of this."
She had a point, and Kai didn’t have a way to reply to her response.
"Okay, I admit that was an oversight on my end. He can be the head of the pirate military force. Cornelia, you can choose who you want to be your second in command."
"So what do you plan on doing with this new pirate crew?" Kyana started looking around the newly refurbished base, already liking the feeling of the place. Still, she preferred a place away from water.
"Remember when I said we’ll become pirate piraters? Well, this is that. Granted, I wont be a part of it since we’ll be on a different continent, but not only will we use our new pirate crew to beat up other pirates, we’ll use them to spread peace throughout the entire archipelago, and Cornelia’s name will go down in history."
Everyone clapped, and Cornelia really loved that idea. Her dream was to be the captain of a pirate crew, and while she technically already achieved that goal before, this time, it would be on a bigger scale.
"Kai. Let’s go." Barry put on a straight face.
"Huh? Why? We can stay here for a few days at least."
"The demon king! We’re so close! We can beat him now, man! We’re this close!"
Everyone could tell that the reason Barry was acting this way was not because he wanted to beat the demon king. Sure, they assumed he wanted to, but his expression gave them a different vibe.
"We? Do you mean me? I’m pretty sure I’d be the one to fight him. Unless you all want a try?" The mana levels of his girls, except for Cornelia, Iris, and Patty, were over 100K, so they were at the level of a Demon King.
However, since Carleen was at 100K as well, and she wasn’t the demon king but a demon lord, it was safe to assume the demon king was far stronger than her. Even Malgus was around 500K in the mana stat when he stopped holding back.
"Absolutely not."
"Pass."
"No thanks."
"I’ll try on the fourth demon king."
"No."
"I don’t think I’m strong enough for that."
"If you want me to face him, I’ll do it!" Karumi was the only one who agreed to fight the demon king, but she knew it would be an impossible feat for her current strength.
"We don’t have time for this! He could be messing up the world as we speak!" Barry shouted.
"Dude, calm down. It’s not like the sky is going to split open and start raining demons or anything like that."
Everyone looked up to see if Kai would have to eat his words.
"Phew."
"I know, but we need to beat him now! I need to beat him!" Barry’s voice cracked, and his emotions started to show.
"It’s okay, Barry, I get it. You’re just not as cool as me."