Ashwood Chapter 21 - Qayanat

"Welcome to My Palace, Masaki."

'Huh,' Masaki looked at the woman, gorgeous woman with dusky skin, wide lips, and a smile that extended from ear to ear. How did she know about the smile? Well, because she was smiling slightly, waving her hand in front of her eyes, checking if she was still there.

"Masaki?"

"Where am I?" Masaki got on her feet, only realising she was naked. She was going to hide in the tub, but she realised she was wearing her clothes. She stepped out of the tub, noticing the water turn into her shoes, and she took a step away from the woman, "you are…? The Princess?"

"Qayanat, that's the name I go by, usually," Qayanat smiled at her, raising her eyebrows, moving her smoky eyes over Masaki, "that was the System? People take decades Master S-Grade Skills. Even with my powers, and the chance I give them…rarely someone comes along with a S-Grade Skill. You, on the other hand…it's fascinating."

"That village…people there…?"

"They are fine," Qayanat straightened her back, patting the head of the blue-haired woman who was kneeling beside her, "Esdeath here wants to go out, but she can't. It was all an illusion."

"Why? Why that kind of illusion?"

"It was more of…me wanting Esdeath to go and recruit you and Esdeath being naughty about it," Qayanat shrugged, shooting a blaming look towards the blue-haired general.

Esdeath got on her feet, holding her cap to her chest, "I only wanted to show her the real me. I don't need vanilla women who can't handle little things like these. They will come in the way of your final goal."

"I am a vanilla woman?" Qayanat looked back at Esdeath, who covered her mouth with the hat, hiding her laughter while her shoulders trembled from it.

"What? I am!" Qayanat forcefully said, and Esdeath nodded, with a face that said she could live in that fantasy for however long she wanted.

Qayanat pouted, turning her attention back to Masaki, shaking her head, "Now…you want to see me?"

"I am not fighting by her side," Masaki made it clear the first chance she got.

"I understand. It is hard to fight those who would fight alongside Esdeath," Qayanat muttered with a saddened look.

"They are a bunch of hypocrites," Esdeath commented.

"Then…why?"

"Because you live in my Kingdom. Temporarily so, but you went to that embarrassing place that people call temple, and prayed. And I always help my people," Qayanat warmly smiled at her, "now. What is your wish?"

"My wish…I want to get stronger."

"You already are plenty strong."

"Not strong enough," Masaki shook her head when Qayanat narrowed her eyes with curiosity.

"Come here."

Masaki glanced towards Esdeath, who gave her a challenging smile. Still, she thought for a moment before she walked over and knelt down in front of Qayanat, who rested her palm on her cheek.

Masaki looked into those smoky brown eyes, and she felt her whole life run in front of her eyes, and then her life that she didn't see. Her son and daughters growing up, and her son meeting a Soul Reaper, becoming a Soul Reaper, fighting, getting hurt, nearly losing his life, and then regaining his powers, training, going to soul society, fight again, managing to save the Soul Reaper, and being defeated, mastering his Hollow Powers, going to Hueco Mundo, fighting Espada, and then losing his powers.

She went through it, saw him, lived it. In that moment, she lived for years, watching her son's fights, happiness, resolve, pain, and tears slid down her cheeks when he lost his powers. From living without his powers to when he regained his powers, to when Quincies finally attacked, and her fear came true. And he was plunged into the battle again, and gained his own Zanpakuto and powers that he lost.

She got to watch the war against the Quincies, the death of Soul King, the Rise of Quincy King, and her son's confrontation with him, but it broke at that. Her coughed out blood, feeling the soul-crushing pain when Qayanat stroked her head, causing a warm feeling to spread through her body.

"Too many fates to see…and your son carries the weight of a dangerous fate…but then again, seeing as to how the Quincy King is the one who controls the fate of your world," Qayanat gave a nod, "I can understand why you want to grow stronger. First thing first, you need the power to come back to life from a destroyed Soul. But you shouldn't use your points. Hybrid Title…that is useful and seeing the origin of your bloodline…you can take the route of Divine King. Or Soul King in your case."

"How?" Masaki wiped her tears, looking through them at the woman with unfathomable powers.

"Hybrid Title of yours. It could evolve to Prime Being. You should ask system how many points it will take?" Qayanat curiously waited for an answer, and Masaki was distracted for a few moments before she said.

"5000…."

"So many…and you haven't awakened you Soul Reaper Bloodline. It might half the cost of points if awakened," Qayanat stood up, walking towards the balcony of the palace. She opened the door, and the gust of wind rushed in. She gazed at her country, the capital city, everything looked so small from so far up.

Masaki trembled, trying to stand up, and she nearly fell forward when Esdeath caught her arm, helping her stand up. She looked up in puzzlement at the blue-haired woman, who gave her a straight answer, "I saw it. Your life too. You are a woman worthy of my respect."

"I still don't like you," Masaki pulled away from Esdeath, managing to stand up on her own. She felt angry, seeing Esdeath smirk, and she walked to the balcony, finding Qayanat leaning against the railing. The Princess raised her voice, since there was so much wind.

"Come here! I don't want to shout!"

Masaki held her hair, seeing Qayanat holding hers in place, "the wind is nice!"

"I like it too," Qayanat chuckled, "As I was saying. No one in the Seven Kingdoms wants a Prime Being to appear. That is why no one would help you."

"You weren't saying that!"

Qayanat continued, pretending she didn't hear it, "Not even the Witch, despite how much she wants to destroy the current world order. But her champion, the guy you need to kill, he surprisingly has a mini-mini-Godhood. He should be able to help you."

"Why would he help me?!"

Abruptly, the wind stopped, making Masaki feel she was floating, seeing the knowing smile on Qayanat's face, "He will. Trust me. Now, you have been in water for far too long. Going through your Fate and your sons took hours. You should wake up."

FLASH

"It worked," Kal leaned against the bench as the projection of memory disappeared.

"How did you do that?" Tifa took off the glasses and turned her eyes towards Kal. They were stunned by what they saw, but more so, she and Tsunade knew what powers he had. None of it seemed to make sense, none of it would allow him to project memories.

"World Merge," Kal slowly breathed, "Since I became Three Star EG, my skill reached Level 3. My scanning and world merge unlocked more powers, along with others, but in this case. I can scan more, and read the data like thoughts, and in case of World Merge. I decided to use thoughts like nostalgia or thinking back to a memory to gain access to a memory storage and designated it as World One, and Augmented Reality as World Two. Projecting it. Those glasses allowed you to see the same thing as me."

"Cool, this must be Mini-Mini-Godhood Princess Qayanat talked about," Masaki clapped her hands together, "so. Can you help me?"

"Did you say you can read thoughts?"

Kal was thinking about Masaki's question when he heard Tsunade and Tifa's worry, looking at them, and a grin appeared on his lips, "I read all of your though—"

One Minute Later,

"You asked something," Kal stood on the bench with broken glasses, swollen cheeks, foreheads, lips, asking Masaki with a tear on the corner of his eye.

Masaki gulped, darting her eyes between the two women who stood behind the Bus Stand's pole, whispering to ear other, looking for ways to defend against their thoughts being read.

"Um…can you…help me?"

"Yes…but you won't like it…"

"What is it?"

That Evening,

"You think she will agree to it," Tifa rested her head on Ashwood's chest, lying on the bed, her naked body was barely covered by the blanket, and her legs were hanging.

"I don't know," Kal rested his palm above her breasts, while the other one was being used by Tsunade like a pillow, "you said yes."

"I was also being tortured, and it was the only way out," Tifa moved her ruby eyes up, as if she could see him, "you gave her a choice."

"The woman whose son has to face a Godly Being and will probably die…? For her…if there is an option. She will take it," Tsunade slowly opened her green eyes, staring at his chest. She closed her eyes again when there was a knock on the door. She opened her eyes again when he shouted, "Come in."

Tifa and Tsuande both came to a halt, they wanted to shoot the angry look at him but they spent the little time they had to stretch the blanket and hiding under it, then giving him a deadly glare.

'I am not taking revenge at all,' Kal snickered, sitting up on the bed, being pressed by the women who pushed their naked bodies against his. The only solace they had was the chance of a woman coming through that door were higher than a man coming. To Kal's surprise, and their horror, it was someone they had no idea about.

Kal narrowed his eyes, placing his palm on the blanket, and digital light came out of from the corners and blanket, and spread out like a scanned surface was being formed. The three lights, moving one after the other, forming the blanket, which was now big enough for all three of them to share.

"They are?" Tsunade whispered, looking at the Eight People, each dressed in heavy clothes, shiny, rich clothes marching inside. The one in the front was wearing rings with rare gem on his fingers, holding a staff with blue gem. He was rubbing his triangular white beard, narrowing his eyes silver eyes.

"I heard that the New City Lord is too busy to see us. Now I can see why."

"Hm," Kal watched him curiously. His presence alone was enough to make him not focus on the other seven, despite them being there, "you want something from me?"

"Why don't you send them on the way. This is Xphargos's Classified Matter. We can't have the whores sit during such matters."

'Uwa, he really said it. Should I be angry, are they angry,' Kal darted his eyes between the two. Not a spec of anger on their faces. If anything, they were judging the haughty men standing in front of the bed.

Noticing his look, Tsunade raised her body, holding the blanket, whispering in his ear, "oh please. Do you know how many times I have been called that during your videos? Or how many men I have—"

"Uh-uh-uh-uh," Kal covered her mouth, he whispered back, "I get it. I get it…I should be angry…but this is so funny…in my world this never happens! They look so foolish!"

Tifa glanced towards the men, who were likely Two Star or higher, and could hear; looking at their faces, she couldn't help but snicker.

"Enough!" The leader man slammed the staff on the ground, causing a shockwave that broke the bed, along with the table behind him, and cracks appeared on the wall.

"Ughh," Kal sat up among the pieces of the bed with his butt touching the floor, "can't take a joke, can you?"

He looked up at the smile disappeared from his face as purple-black mana started to come out of every pore in his body, spreading through the room like someone drilled an enormous drop of mana in the room. It crashed against the walls, coming back towards them, "Take a hike."

A pillar of mana rose between them and when they tried to move, the mana on their foot trapped them, draining their mana and more mana from the walls rushed to the top of pillar, reforming a drop, with all of them inside. The drop solidified, changing its size, and fell into Ashwood's palm, which watched the dark purple gem, "it's a thing of beauty."

"Did you kill them?" Jane appeared in the room, with audible worry in her voice while Tifa and Tsunade got on their feet.

"It's that place," Tifa covered her boobs, mainly she was holding her shoulders as goosebumps appeared, "wait…are you…?"

"Don't make me puke. I was your tormentor because that was the first time Domain appeared. I was as trapped as you were. Now, I have much better control over it and I can use it like a prison," He showed her the gem, "they can torment themselves for eternity for all I case."

"They were the Last of Eight Families, the only reason they were left alive was to manage the city, and without them, the city would stop functioning. They only came to stop you from doing what you were doing because—"

"Because I was making new trade routes?" Digitals parties spread through the room, repairing the bed, cleaning it, and repairing everything that was broken. In a few seconds, it looked as good as new, "they were worried this was some kind of power play and they heard of my powers from their spies in the Palace, and since they felt I might reduce the need to keep them alive…and effectively causing their death, they decided to put me into place or take control of things if my idea was good? About it?"

"You knew," Tsunade clicked on the icon in her inventory, wearing her new pre-set clothes, the green jacket, black yoga pants and sports bra, along with the belt.

"Yeah," He walked towards his seat, light blue-grey coat with white furred hood, and black pant, along with a purple shirt. He sat down on the chair, "for whatever reason, most of the members of Eight Ruling Families were killed Seven Years ago. The young ones…I am assuming have their memory erased and place in an orphanage somewhere?"

"Why—"

"I know her…Miss Witch," Kal played with the paperweight, "She would never hurt children…."

He stopped, looking at Jane, "something to do with you…and death of City Lord? Or else you wouldn't be serving her."

Before she could say anything, he clarified, "I won't ask. Either way, they were a nuisance. The only one I talked about the trading routes is you…her and a few people I negotiated with. Who seemed to know more than they should have. The reasons don't matter. What matters is that I will handle the fall out…so here."

Jane caught the purple tear, looking at it in bewilderment, "…"

"Crush it anytime you want to kill them. Though…I'd suggest you let them stew a little."

"They are in literal hell," Tifa was once again reminded of the awful experience.

Jane speechlessly looked at the purple tear, "it's easy for me to kill them…the only reason I didn't…the city…? You—"

"I know I am interrupting you a lot…but believe me when I saw this…it will be fine. I have a plan," Kal tilted his head in a smile, "You'll understand by tomorrow. I promise."

"If not, then you will release them."

"Ok. I will."

Tifa watched Jane walk out and close the door behind her before she walked around the table, leaning against it, "you have no plan…do you?"

Kal speechlessly answered, "I do…I have ideas…and plans…."

"Let me guess. Not a quick solution?" Tsunade rubbed her forehead in worry. She didn't want to think about it, but she saw this coming a mile away. She knew she would have to help eventually, being the only one here who managed anything close to a nation.

"Should I come…at a different time?"

"Hm?" the three of them turned their attention to the brown-haired woman on the door, "Masaki?"

"Yeah…I was thinking about accepting your contract…but it seems something serious happened," Masaki scratched her head when she saw a look of joy appear on Ashwood's face.

The man appeared in front of her, gripping her shoulder, "that's it! It's you! You are the solution!"

"I think I am going to change my mind now?" Masaki tried to take a step back, failing to do so.

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