Carter sat down at the opposite of the Monkey and placed his sleek black blade on the table.

Gyoja glanced at the blade. "So this must be Iganu. The famous God-Killing blade."

The blade trembled gently like it was excited.

"God-Killing?" Carter raised an eyebrow. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Gyoja nodded. "Belina Du Manac. Well. She isn’t a full god but she had the power of an entire world behind her. She can be called a God in many aspects."

"A False God maybe. It seems like your Divination Skill is excellent." Carter said.

The Monkey Champion shook his head, "I paid a lot of price to see it, Master Blackburn. It was different than your follower, Lady Mikoto. She could see the future with much less side effects than me."

’Hmm. The Monkey seems to know about me. But he doesn’t know that all the skins are me.’

At the same time, the Doll also looked into the complicated web of Fate. Fate couldn’t see his true identity either and treated each Skin as its own real individual. When the Doll tried to look deeper, all it could see was a Blank Space.

The Doll communicated what it saw to Carter.

’The Skin System hides me... Or is it the question marks skin?’

"You must know the reason I’m here." Carter said.

The Monkey put his pipe down. "Yes, I do, Master Blackburn. The Heavenly Sect brought the Gods to Arashi. They brought you here. And you want to make Tenseitama the King."

"That’s right." Carter nodded along.

"You want to bring order to this land. The first Kingdom to fall was Jado. Ryuja was a merciless leader. He must be eliminated. He will be eliminated. I wasted thirty years of my life span to see that."

Carter observed Gyoja. From what the Doll had divined, the Monkey Champion was much older than the rest of the Champion. But he should be in his middle-aged appearance right now, not this old broken body.

’So... The side effect of Gyoja to look into the future was his lifespan.’

Carter stayed silent and let Gyoja finished.

"Us Yokais are the biggest obstacles to that once Jado changed its leader. So you want to make sure us Yokai Champions won’t cause a problem."

"You read my mind." Carter nodded.

The Monkey chuckled. "I can’t, Master Blackburn. I could only see what Fate has told me. No one can read you mind, Lord Divine."

"Since you already know why I’m here, what is your answer, Gyoja?"

The Monkey nodded, "Me and my children shall join the new Kingdom. We will be the second section along with the Suiryu Forest. I hope that we will get the same treatment as Gogyu?"

"Of course. You will be the citizens of the Kingdom and share the same rights and laws as the humans."

"Then I am glad, Master Blackburn." Gyoja knelt in front of Carter and bowed.

"What are you doing, Gyoja?" Carter frowned.

"You shall be the New God of our world. And I must pay the respect for the God." Gyoja bowed three times. His head touched the ground. "I have prepared a gift for you, Lord Divine."

Gyoja led Carter deeper into the cave. There, a singular red staff stood straight under the water flowing down.

’Jingu Bang?’

For some reasons, the staff reminded him of that legendary weapon of a certain Monkey on Earth. This staff was obviously not the magical staff in question and not as nearly as powerful.

’Maybe I can make that legend comes to live someday.’

The black swordsman reached his hand out. The red staff flew to him. Carter grabbed it tightly.

"This is the Crimson Staff of the Abyss Trench. I found it deep in the ocean, standing lonely with nothing around it. I suspected it was created because of a volcano eruption long ago." Gyoja said.

Carter twirled the staff then slammed it on the ground. Fire blasted out gently from the point of contact.

"It does have fire power within it. How particular. I’ll accept this gift, Gyoja."

"I’m glad you like it, Lord Divine."

[Crimson Staff added to Zeneros Blackburn’s Items]

"I do have a question, though. Why gave me this? You should know that Gogyu didn’t give me anything."

"That Ox is powerful but he’s a fool. Fate requires a much more delicate handling. This staff and the loyalty of my kind is an advanced payment."

"For what?"

"For the existence of my kind."

The Doll was looking into the Future while they were talking. She noticed that because of Gyoja’s action, the Fate of the island had shifted gently. It didn’t change too much but enough to ensure the existence of the Monkey Yokais.

Gogyu and Gyoja both had a challenge in the future with the new Kingdom that Tenseitama would lead. Both of them would be crushed by Tenseitama. But now, only one would face a tragic fate.

’This Monkey is rather wise, original...’

In front of Carter, the gray Monkey turned white. It became even older and weaker.

Gyoja coughed a few times and got used to his new state. Fate had taken away its price.

"You sacrifice a lot for your kind, Gyoja." Carter said.

Gyoja smiled, "I only did what I can do for them."

"Hmm. Come to the Giyaku Shrine, Gyoja. You have a talent for Divination. But you don’t have a path yet. Mikoto can teach you."

Gyoja widened his eyes, "She will take me as her student?"

"That will be up to you."

Gyoja bowed in joy. He was a Champion Yokai but his Divination wasn’t better than the Maiden of the Shrine. He knew that at least. This was a chance for him to maybe outgrow what Fate had arranged for this old Monkey.

’I was thinking of farming a lot of Yokai Shards on this trip. But instead of action scenes, all I got were story scenes. Well, can’t help it. They would become my citizens soon. Can’t just slaughter them outright.’

Carter wanted to take Wild Earth’s World Key. The Yokais weren’t actually a malevolent force like Terror and could actually be reasoned with. Killing them off would be the move of a mindless warlord.