As the twin children stood at attention to the right of Kain and left of Alexis, the former Heroes finally managed to pull themselves together and enter the throne room. Only Nagato entered with a swagger fit for a template Isekai protagonist, the rest tried to show some level of respect and humility. As he saw the group enter, Kain’s eyes focused on the hopelessly optimistic form of the only Japanese citizen among the group.

He had a feeling that this boy in particular would be a pain in the neck to deal with and hoped that he would not make his wife too angry. If there was one thing potentially more terrifying than his own fits of rage it was those of his wife, and may whatever god, gods or lack thereof that the poor soul on the receiving end of her wrath believed in have mercy on their soul, because she certainly wouldn’t. Kain slightly shuddered at the thought of Alexis eviscerating the poor fool in front of him, only to immediately ‘heal’ him and do it all over again, and again, and again, and again…

As Kain looked with at the former Heroes, he noticed that Nagato seemed to have grown even more confident. Maybe he took Kain’s shuddering earlier as a sign of weakness or fear? If that was the case, it meant that Nagato had truly become a cookie cutter Japanese Isekai Hero. If that was the case, now all he needed was a harem, some ridiculously overpowered abilities and equally overpowered equipment and talent, not mention an absurd bone-headedness regarding affection, endless optimism and other such idiotic tropes.

Alexis seemed to pick up on Nagato’s brazen bravado as well, and her normal stoic and uncaring face was slowly turning into a frown. If it fell much farther, it would go from frown to scowl and finally to a baleful snarl. The other former Heroes, for their part, seemed to be fully aware of Kain and Alexis’ growing discontentment, and rather than risk any reprisal they merely showed deference then and there by dropping to one knee and looking towards the ground.

Nagato seemed to be unaware of the souring mood he was creating and, in a display of either pure suicidal idiocy or equally idiotic arrogance, stood tall and proud while casting a look of confusion at his compatriots.

“We are here as requested!” Nagato declared in the throne room filled with beings that could cut him to ribbons without much trouble, if any at all. “Before you tell us to join you, I would ask that you hear me out! I believe that you can stop your evil ways and become good people, all you need to do is repent and release your puppet states while releasing the enslaved dead from their prisons! Do these things, and I sure the Luminas Church and the other members of the Confederacy will-!”

“Fool.”

Kain uttered one word and the entire throne room was filled with his power. Even the seemingly oblivious Nagato was now sweating bullets out of fear. The oppressive force vanished as quickly as it came, and Nagato put his hand on his main sword’s hilt, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice.

“I-I hardly think it is foolish to want people to be decent, just and good. And, if you will not go back on your evil ways, then I will-!”

Nagato did not get to finish his sentence. Before he realized what had happened, he was already being held by his neck more than a foot off the ground by Kain. As the grip around his throat tightened, Nagato tried to look for any semblance of a good person inside Kain. It was said that the eyes are a window into the soul, and even as Nagato began to asphyxiate he could not see anything ‘human’ inside Kain’s eyes.

Right before Nagato lost consciousness, Kain released his grip and before Nagato had even dropped a single millimeter, Kain was back on his throne in the same position he was in merely a few moments ago. Nagato hit the ground and held his sore throat as he gasped for air, slowly looking up at the man who could have very easily snapped his leg like a twig beneath tank treads.

“My apologies. I heard you start to threaten me and mine and I instinctively lashed out. However, if you make such threats again, be aware that you will need the strength to back them up. People here in the Greater Darksol Empire don’t fall for bluffs as easily as you would think. As for me and mine ‘changing our ways’, well you are so obviously naive and foolish that I have to doubt whether you have learned anything from your time in this world at all.”

Kain’s gaze began to burrow into Nagato, as if he was subconsciously searching for something hidden inside of him. “In fact, it makes me wonder what exactly happened to make you this way. I seems to me, based on what I have learned from my… associates… that your entire personality began to shift some time ago, and radically at that. Perhaps… Perhaps there is more at play than either of us know…”

Nagato got to his feet and was about to try again, but a massive headache overcame him, and he nearly fell to the ground again. Both Kain and Alexis felt the tremors of some kind of manipulation during this brief moment, and it set both of them on guard.

“Razzy, Lizzy, get to safety.”

At Alexis’ words, the two children nodded and ran off. Both monarchs stood up, their position several steps up from the rest of those in the throne room adding to their already imposing height advantage. Both of them summoned their weapons and prepared for combat, but Nagato merely convulsed for a while before falling unconscious. It seemed like the worst was over, but that was far from it.

Nagato’s body began to lift itself up, but the force providing the power to move his still unconscious body seemed to come from somewhere else, beyond the continent and even beyond the planet.

“Would have liked this puppet to be a bit more useful, but so much for that.”

A voice completely unlike Nagato’s own came from his mouth. Kain was the only one in the room that seemed to be more unnerved than the others. The voice was unsettlingly familiar, as if he had heard it many times before in a place far, far removed from anywhere he could think of. The voice was both entirely alien and terrifyingly familiar, but it bore no traces of the same force displayed by Lord Wolfenstein, so it likely wasn’t LW’s or that of a being like him(?).

Kain had a very bad feeling about this, and rather than giving whoever was manipulating the sleeping slave that was Nagato a chance to act, Kain darted forward and tried to bisect the summoned Hero from head to groin.

Only, he couldn’t.

Nagato, someone who by all rights should not have been able to hold a candle to Kain, parried the blow and withstood the immense force of the impact like it the both of them were just normal people. This made everyone, including Kain himself, understandably shocked. Nagato’s abilities compared to Kain’s should have been like a lame mouse compared to a human, but whatever force had taken control of his body was giving it a boost unlike anything anyone expected.

“You’re strong, but I am stronger. It’s my right as someone who stands above worthless trash. Everyone is beneath me, in the new world, this one and my own homeworld. You all need to just suck it up and accept that I am above you, just like the ones in the new world and the people on my old world did!”

The voice mocked Kain and made Nagato smirk, but that arrogance was short lived. Nagato’s arms suddenly fell to his sides, followed by his legs giving out and his mouth vomiting blood and bits of shredded organs and bone.

“Never underestimate the power I wield. The only trash here is you. Now, die.” Kain said with a growl as the puppet Nagato collapsed.

“Well played, monster. But don’t get too full of yourself, ‘cause I will win this game soon enough. The new world is mine, and soon both yours and my old world will be too. I’ll find another way to end you and win this war before I even have to invade. I hope you’re prepared for oblivion, ‘cause you won’t stand a chance either way. You’ll see soon enough, and once I get back to my old world, I’ll teach those fucking sluts why they should never have-! Urrrgh…”

The unknown entity spouted a few words that made the hairs on Kain’s neck stand on end before the now lifeless body of Nagato let out the last of its breath. The throne room was dead silent save for the sounds of the remainder of Nagato’s blood and gore flowing out his open mouth. Nobody said a word, and Kain was left to wonder why the entity’s voice was so damn familiar and why it made him so very perturbed to even hear it.

But trying to remember where it came from was a pain and it wouldn’t change a damn thing about the situation at hand, so he attempted to put it out of mind. He dismissed the former Heroes, now minus one, for the day and ordered the mess be cleaned up. As he retired to his study to try and figure out what the hell just happened, he failed to notice the monocle-wearing gentleman(?) who watched him from the doorway. If only that figure had told Kain what was going on, events in the future might have played out differently.

But, as the figure that was Lord Wolfenstein would say on the eve of the invasion, “Sometimes, ignorance of the game made by other, stranger, more unknowable beings for shits and giggles is more beneficial to long-term mental health.”