Chapter 165: Analysis and Opening

Strictly speaking, Kurama was not a hardcore AC fan.

Aside from a few works that he was particularly obsessed with, he generally just watched anime and read manga casually, without deliberately obsessing over detailed settings and lore.

Therefore, having only skimmed the first season's thirteen episodes from start to finish, the fact that he could still remember most of the plot and characters after so many years was already quite commendable, and some haziness regarding the details was only natural.

For instance, his understanding of the specific abilities of the Colorless King.

Kurama knew that the attribute of successive Colorless Kings was "fickleness"—unpredictable and oscillating between good and evil, often used to mediate or disrupt the balance of power among the other six Kings.

When this fickle attribute manifested in each Colorless King, it would diverge into different specific expressions based on the individual King's nature, such as the previous Colorless King Ichigen Miwa's "prophecy," and the current Colorless King's (this jerk didn't even have a name until his death...) "interference."

Of course, the term "interference" was something Kurama had picked up from Baidu back in the day. In reality, as for what the Colorless King's ability truly was, the Youko's view was actually "yet to be determined."

The known intelligence was that the Colorless King could transfer his soul to possess other people's bodies. Judging from his various multiple-personality-like behaviors in the later stages of the anime, what he could achieve seemed not to be limited to merely possessing bodies—at least stealing the abilities of the possessed host's body and bypassing their authority to pry into their memories and life experiences were also among the abilities displayed by the Colorless King.

As for how the Colorless King invaded other people's bodies, two methods could be summarized from the original plot.

The first was close-range, face-to-face eye contact. Through his suspected true form—a tube-fox-like avatar—this fellow could rapidly achieve the goal of transferring his spirit and possessing someone else's body.

The second method occurred when he tried to provoke the Red King, Suoh Mikoto. He transmitted something—whether it was his true form or something similar to the spiritual separation entities Kurama and the others had previously captured—through telephone signals. Taking advantage of the moment when his target's mind suffered a massive shock and revealed an opening, he attempted to infiltrate the target's consciousness, devour their power, and... possess their body.

"Judging from these two points, unless facing a target whose power is overly formidable—which here specifically refers to the other six Kings—when the target of the attack is changed to anyone else, the Colorless King's tricks basically require no special prior preparation. As long as he casts them, he succeeds. It's undoubtedly a cheat-like method."

Kurama touched his chin in summary.

Tatara sat next to him in deep thought. "However, such power is not entirely without restrictive conditions. At least from your description, whether it's close-range face-to-face or long-distance separation, the Colorless King always needs certain conditions to be met if he wants to invade someone else's consciousness and body."

And these conditions...

"The manifestation in close-range face-to-face encounters mainly requires eye contact with the target, while long-distance separation..."

"It might require a momentary wavering in the target's willpower, or some kind of medium that can serve as contact between the two parties—it could be radio waves, or perhaps something else."

Kurama pondered.

"I say 'might' because it cannot be completely ascertained. Firstly, regarding the so-called momentary wavering of willpower, because there are too few reference subjects, it's uncertain whether that was necessary simply because the target was a fellow King, the Red King, or if it applies to all targets equally."

Hearing this, Tatara nodded. "Yes. Therefore, once the possibility mentioned by Mokona earlier is taken into consideration, the questions we couldn't answer due to various uncertain factors in our deductions can naturally yield some answers."

"For example..."

Regarding whether the Colorless King could invade other people's bodies and consciousnesses without any medium?

From the original work, the answer to this question should be negative.

Ever since the Colorless King made his debut, all of his "body-swapping" operations involved transferring from one person to another who was currently in face-to-face contact with the former.

The single exception was the time he attempted to "devour" the Red King via telephone.

However, during this failed operation by the Colorless King, Kurama and Tatara could not determine whether his choice to contact Suoh Mikoto was intended to make the target waver, or to obtain some kind of medium that would allow him to seamlessly make contact with the target, or perhaps... both?

"If he could remotely invade someone else's consciousness without any medium, the Colorless King's ability would simply be too terrifying. Therefore, I'm inclined to believe he still needs a medium to execute his abilities," Tatara said.

"And following this line of thought, the people who came to attack Hades and the others earlier were clearly manipulated by the Colorless King. This kind of manipulation requires the Colorless King himself to have had prior contact with this group of people. Yet, aboard the Silver King's airship, the Himmel, there seemingly wasn't any tool capable of establishing contact with this group. Then..."

Then it confirmed Mokona's earlier conjecture that the Colorless King had secretly landed by piloting an airship.

"However, the Colorless King's ability cannot manipulate multiple people simultaneously."

Kurama calmly pointed out the flaw in Tatara's deduction.

"=K=!"

The flaxen-haired young man, who had missed this detail, instantly slumped his shoulders.

At this moment, Hypnos's statement timely rescued the deduction that seemed on the verge of reaching a deadlock—

"One of the people in the ambush party was a mental-power user. Although it's a mystery how someone with such high mental strength could easily have their body and consciousness invaded, one of that person's abilities is 'consciousness synchronization,' with a maximum limit of 'coordinating' the consciousnesses of ten people simultaneously."

In other words, through abilities like devouring and possession, the Colorless King manipulating multiple people at once became a possibility.

However, Kurama was not worried that these changes—which clearly never appeared in the original work but occurred due to the arrival of himself, Hades, and the others—would produce any negative consequences later on.

Because...

"That fellow's tentacles reach too far. Such rude behavior is really not very nice."

A playful smile hung on Thanatos's face as he casually tossed and played up and down with a small white orb inside which peculiar mists continuously churned.

Upon closer inspection, it was not hard to recognize that this was precisely the barrier sphere previously used to contain (?) that portion of the Colorless King's spiritual separation entity that Kurama and the others had intercepted.

Only now, this sphere had grown larger by two circles compared to before, and the churning mist inside was much denser. Even the somewhat listless appearance it had shown during Hypnos's various experiments had faded away significantly, and it had once again become full of vitality. Clearly... it had received a powerful new "supplement."

"Since he came, he shouldn't think about going back." Following the Death God, it was the blond Sleep God who spoke with a gentle smile. "To actually dare to set his sights on His Majesty... Heh."

"............"

—What a single sentence expressing countless meanings!

Kurama silently turned his head away amid Hypnos's meaningful (?) chuckles.

The Colorless King was probably going to suffer a severe injury to his vitality this time.

He thought with complete detachment.

From the very beginning when they intercepted the Colorless King's spiritual entity, Kurama had never intended to conceal the existence of his group.

That was why they pretended not to notice the faint connection between the spiritual entity and the main body, allowing the main body to learn through the spiritual entity that Tatara had been rescued by them and was still alive and well in the world.

Later on, they indeed used Hypnos's experiments as an excuse to "timely discover" and sever the connection between the two sides, preventing the Colorless King from knowing about the Red Clan quartet's visit and the various cooperative agreements struck between the two parties afterward. Kurama had originally planned to use this to make the Colorless King feel cautious and hesitant in his subsequent actions, adding an extra layer of insurance for the smooth implementation of their plan. Little did he expect that the Colorless King's thought process was truly different from ordinary people, and he would actually choose to take the risk and launch a sneak attack on the inn where Kurama and the others were staying...

Presumably, besides wanting to snatch back that portion of the spiritual entity that had been intercepted earlier, this move was also... meant to put Tatara to death once more, right?

"He's really persistent about you."

Kurama patted his friend's shoulder with a sympathetic expression, prompting Tatara to offer him a wry smile—

"I honestly didn't know I was so deeply hated before."

He said, half-jokingly and half-helplessly.

Kurama shook his head and stopped teasing him, turning his gaze instead to the trio of male gods sitting opposite him who oozed coolness (a description that was thoroughly accurate in every sense):

"So, what's the next step? This is the second time Hypnos has intercepted someone's spiritual entity, especially since the portion intercepted this time also contained that kind of ability..."

The Youko guessed that the Colorless King probably wished he could swallow the Sleep God alive right about now. But because his spiritual entity had been forcibly separated a second time, coupled with the supplementary blow dealt to him by Hypnos through the connection between the spiritual entity and the main body, no matter how furious he was in his heart, that late-stage chūnibyo currently lacked the capability to translate it into practical action. His most likely choice would be to honestly huddle inside his airship to nurse his injuries, and plan his next moves only after he had fully recovered →_→

Hypnos curved his lips into an urbane and cultured smile. "Considering that the Colorless King still hasn't dared to show his face after being openly declared war on (actually provoked) by us for so long, he won't dare to come make trouble again in the short term. Now that you, Kurama, have rejoined the team..."

"The most important thing right now is to find our next lodging, isn't it? After all... leaving His Majesty Hades and Her Majesty the Queen to sleep in the wild would be a dereliction of duty on my and Thanatos's part."

"............"

—Kurama didn't even have the energy left to roll his eyes at the god who had suddenly started speaking in bureaucratic jargon.

Carelessly nodding, the Youko stood up and prepared to turn and leave alongside the lover who had already walked over to his side. However, from the distant horizon, a surge of extremely powerful energy suddenly erupted...

"The Sword... of Damocles?!"

Accompanied by Tatara's realization-filled whisper, far off at the end of the sky, a giant sword slowly... materialized, appearing as though even the surrounding air was vibrating and distorting due to its emergence!

"King..."

Looking at that familiar crimson giant sword, an expression of supreme astonishment and worry instantly surfaced on Tatara's face.