Chapter 562: King's Mark

Kai continued screaming no matter the time. Despite preparing his heart to receive pain, the pain was beyond his imagination.

If not because he had good mental fortitude, he would have passed out.

Arba and Aston could only watch from afar, hoping that Kai could succeed. They obviously didn't know the degree of pain, but they knew that Kai wouldn't scream just being stabbed by his enemy.

That was why Aston quickly prepared everything Kai would need later while Arba watched over him.

After a whole day, Kai was still screaming, but he somehow glanced at Arba, maintaining eye contact with her.

At that time, Arba realized what he needed and raised her hand, lifting the food next to her. She carried it carefully, so it didn't touch Kai or the Magic Circle.

As soon as it was near Kai, Arba moved it a bit closer to Kai's face, so he could take a bite. Kai didn't hesitate and took a huge bite since he was quite hungry after enduring all this pain.

Arba made sure he got his drink and food whenever he wanted.

Aston often replaced Arba, but because Aston had been working for their intelligence network, Arba was the one watching him most of the time.

The one thing that Kai needed was sleep. He had yet to sleep in the past three days and he didn't feel like sleeping with all this pain.

To his surprise, his body also didn't feel like resting. There was a weird sensation that kept him going. And he thought it was the Crown Jewel giving him energy.

At the very least, what he felt from his body was excitement.

He kept enduring the pain that spread all over his body. He didn't know why but he felt like being boiled alive. The pain made him think his body was going to melt, but there wasn't even an instance of something like that happening.

He simply endured that feeling and started getting used to the pain.

Kai just felt his body begin to feel numb and the pain was reduced not long after.

Still, he had endured two weeks of torture at that time. And during that time, Kai still moved around inside his circle, adjusting his body even further. This was the second phase that he needed to do.

Even though every step he took made the pain several times more painful, he endured all of them to the very end.

He stopped screaming after three months as if he had gotten hold of this torture. But that was the start of another phase.

Kai found the skin on his hands began to solidify like that of a stone. Although he was numb to the sense of touch this time, he could still feel how his body changed.

Kai didn't know what this was and looked at Arba.

Unfortunately, Arba couldn't understand what was happening as well and asked Aston, who was also clueless.

In the end, Kai didn't ask anymore and observed the change in his skin.

The solidified skin suddenly started to crack after a week. It made Kai, Aston, and Arba panic as they didn't know what was going on with his body.

However, their answer came when Kai became "Fat". It wasn't fat, but Kai's body still looked like it had expanded.

This startled Kai, but when he checked his skin, he realized there was his normal skin between the cracks.

It turned out his former skin was bloated and solidified to change with this new skin. Although he wasn't sure about it, he felt his organs had experienced the same thing.

In other words, his normal body seemed to be unable to withstand the power of the Crown Jewel. And this might also be the reason why the Race Protector would live several times longer than his kin.

Even Ishii had lived for a very long time, let alone the whale that was said to have lived for two hundred thousand years.

He could only sigh. Even though he had prepared for this, he was still sad to know that he would still live even when his great great great grandchildren had died.

People thought immortality was good because they wanted to live longer, but when they reached a certain point, they wouldn't feel the same. Their heart would become numb from the continuous cycle of life and death.

Even Kai knew what he would face in the future was loneliness.

Despite having such a thought, Kai didn't regret choosing this path. Without this, he couldn't live together with the girls and he didn't know what kind of fate they would need to endure just by the fact they were Humanity Protector's women.

The conflict was there, but in the end, Kai chose this as the best path.

He regained his determination and continued the process. The skin began to fall off like a rock on top of a cliff just snapped into two and fell.

The hard skin melted and fused together with the Magic Circle. The same thing was happening all over his body and Kai's appearance couldn't be said to be the same.

There were many marks and cracks on his body, but all of them recovered over time. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, there wasn't much difference between his previous and current skin.

The only thing that could be noticed in a glance was that this skin was brimming with energy. As soon as all his skin had been replaced by a new one, the third process started.

The assimilation process was when the two energies started coming together to coexist in one balance, gaining their balance.

However, the process didn't stop there. The two energies started to assimilate to each other, making it the power that only Kai possessed. This was a unique power that each protector possessed.

After another two months, Kai finally finished this Assimilation Process.

When the last step began, the Crown Jewel surprisingly moved without anyone controlling it. The jewel floated in the air and started coming closer to Kai.

Although he didn't know what it was, there seemed to be something that clutched his heart. He didn't know why, but his hand subconsciously rose, trying to reach the Crown Jewel.

The jewel eventually arrived in front of Kai's palm and didn't stop until it gently touched his palm.

"Kh…" Kai let out a small groan because he never expected another wave of pain to spread from his hand.

He was lucky… or rather he might be unlucky, but he had grown accustomed to this kind of pain and soon regained his focus as if nothing happened.

His hand just rested on top of his knee while he felt the burning sensation that kept going. It felt like the Crown Jewel was trying to mark him with a molten rod.

Kai didn't care about it and just let the Crown Jewel do whatever it wanted.

Six months after he first started this ritual, Kai finally stopped feeling any pain. All the feeling remained was a warm sensation that kept giving him energy.

While closing his eyes, he rose from the floor and opened his right hand.

The Crown Jewel floated inches above the palm, revealing a mark on his hand. The mark was circular with eight-pointed needles. It was like the Crown Jewel used its pointed tips to make it.

"The King's Mark…" Aston drew a gasp. His body was shaken, but when he saw the mark on Kai's hand, he fell on his knees and placed his head on the ground.