“Ah argh!”

The moment he did so, an intense amount of pain struck his chest.

“Gasp.”

Kairen gasped from the sudden pain, clutched his chest, and bent down. It was hard to breathe. He felt like suffocating for a moment. Kairen gasped for air as he tried to keep his eyes open. His body trembled. Strength left his knees and he plopped down to the ground.

Kairen couldn’t see the result of his spell as he was struggling with pain. But he could feel two powers hitting each other. He tried raising his head a little bit.

BOMMM

BANNGG

Earth shook as a huge explosion occurred. It was the result of his magic and the man’s power colliding. The man left Reyan’s throat the moment he sensed an attack coming his way and tried to defend against the unknown magic, but wasn’t successful. He was thrown into the air and dropped down to the ground after flying for a while. He rolled on the ground a few times before hitting a wall and stopping.

“Cough cough…”

Reyan, now released, coughed a few times before looking up. The scene before his eyes was shocking. The street, the asphalt, their broken cars, everything in front of them had disappeared… as if there was nothing there from the beginning. The attackers who were caught in the explosion were nowhere to be seen. It was a scene of devastation.

“Ah, ah, huff, mmng.”

Reyan could hear someone gasping and groaning behind him. When he turned, he could see Kairen sitting there, clutching his chest and trembling. His face was pale and his body was wet with sweat. He was looking at the scene with trembling eyes as if he couldn’t believe what just happened. It was then that his eyes met with Reyan’s. He opened his trembling lips to say something.

“That… argh mmn.”

But he couldn’t say anything. Kairen covered his mouth with his hands feeling that he was about to vomit. He sensed a warm liquid coming out of his mouth.

“Kairen?”

Looking down at his hands, he could see a red liquid covering them. The taste of blood filled his mouth as he threw out once more.

“Hey!”

Reyan grabbed his body that suddenly bent down even more in pain.

“W-what happened? Who… who did that?”

Mr. Rhoads peeked from behind his bodyguards. Nibel was sitting on the floor, blankly looking at the destruction that happened just in front of his feet.

“HA, hahaha!”

Laughter broke the momentary silence. The man stood up, staggering. His whole body was drenched in blood and his arms seemed to be broken. He looked at Kairen as he laughed.

“What was that? Huh? Boy! Answer me! How did you do that?”

A small electric current formed around his body again. It seemed weaker than before, maybe because he used it a lot while defending against Kairen’s attack.

Reyan moved in front of Kairen, who was still vomiting blood. But he too couldn’t do anything as his aura was exhausted. They could just helplessly watch the man prepare another attack.

Kairen raised his head again, blood oozing out of his mouth. He was still filled with power. The unknown power was moving around his soul as if it was mana, but much stronger. Kairen’s body was screaming in pain but he ignored it.

‘Not an attack magic… not again.’

He was too afraid to do that again. The impact of his previous spell was too much. He just cast a shield once again, the strongest shield he Knew. Kairen filled his magic with as much power as he could. It hurt even more as he used that power.

“Haaa… argh Haaa…”

A strong shield appeared around everyone. Kairen felt something hit his shield but couldn’t look up. He was in so much pain that he was about to faint.

In his blurry consciousness, he heard some voices. A few footsteps approaching them and people yelling. But he didn’t care. Kairen couldn’t even keep his eyes open anymore. He could feel his body hitting the ground.

“…ren!”

Someone was shaking his body.

“Kairen…”

But he couldn’t open his eyes. He was thrown into endless darkness.

***

Standing in a lonely street, he was looking at the scene of destruction. Buildings breaking down, trees falling, the ground crumbling… He had been in this place just once, but since then, this scene never left his mind.

He looked forward. As expected, a man was standing there, looking at him.

The same dream. The same nightmare. The same pain he felt every time he had this dream stung his heart once more.

But this time it was different. The man in front of him didn’t look sad. He didn’t scold him. He didn’t ask the questions he would repeat in all of those dreams.

He just stood there, silently looking at him. No matter how much time passed, he didn’t open his mouth. Then, after a long time of silence, his brother closed his eyes, turned back, and started walking away from him.

“….”

Kairen tried to follow him, but he couldn’t move his feet no matter how much he tried. He wanted to call out for him, but no sound left his mouth no matter how much he tried. He couldn’t do anything.

‘Where are you going? Turn back! don’t go!’

Kairen stood there, helplessly watching the back of the man he missed so much. He felt a pressure in his chest, a familiar feeling.

‘Wait… I want to come with you as well….’

He watched till he couldn’t see him. Kairen closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see anymore. He didn’t want to look anymore. He wanted to get out of here.

And Kairen was once again dragged in endless darkness.

***

When Kairen opened his eyes again, a white ceiling came into the view.

“….”

He turned his head and looked around. Kairen could tell without thinking a lot that he was in a hospital room. The room was empty; no one was by his side.

‘Did I faint?’

His body felt really heavy and tired as if he was thrown down from a tall building after being beaten to a pulp.

“…”

He just silently laid on the bed, thinking.

‘What happened to the others? Did we win the fight?’

Recalling the last memory he could remember, they were in the middle of a battle. Kairen thought back about that time. About what he had done.

‘I can’t feel that power anymore.’

The strange power that filled his body for a moment when he was out of mana couldn’t be sensed at all now. That power felt really great as if he could do everything with that. It helped him do a crazy attack… crazy…

Kairen was suddenly reminded of what that attack did. Everything that touched it vanished…

Click

The door opened at the moment and a figure walked in. Kairen could see a blonde guy coming in. Bandages visible under his half-unbuttoned shirt. The blonde guy had nearly half of his body bandaged.

“….”

“Oh? When did you wake up?”

“…Why do you look like a half-mummy?”

“What?”

‘Do they even know what a mummy is?’

The blonde half-mummy tilted his head at Kairen’s words, then closed the door and walked towards him, and sat down on the chair beside the bed.

“How are you feeling?”

Kairen felt fine, except his body feeling like shit. That didn’t matter now. So he asked what he was curious about the most.

“What happened to the mission?”

“…That”

Reyan hesitated for a moment. He looked at Kairen with a strange look then averted his gaze.

“That ended just fine. It seems like the citizens had contacted the police and explained the situation just in time.”

“The police came to aid?”

“No, SMF’s agents were sent to help us.”

“Special Military Forces? Why?”

“…Apparently, the attackers were from Philomns.”

‘That terrorist group? HO!’

“They captured that attribute user and brought us here.”

“Ah!”

Kairen did hear some footsteps and other sounds before fainting, that must have been them.

‘Couldn’t you come a little bit sooner? You know how much pain I went through?’

Kairen criticized those irresponsible guys in his mind as he was reminded of the pain he felt back then.

‘Ah wait…’

“They just captured that man? What about the other attackers?”

“…. That… Uh… don’t you remember?”

“Remember what?”

Reyan looked at him with a deep and strange gaze once again.

“You… killed most of them with that attack of yours…. The others were captured, all of them either unconscious or heavily injured.”

“….”

‘No wait, what did you just say?’

Kairen suddenly raised his body and sat up. His muscles and joints hurt by that sudden movement.

“I- I did what? Kill them?”

Thinking about that again, that magic really had a great impact. But how could he kill them? That wasn’t possible… He made sure not to kill or harm anyone too much during the fight…. Kairen was filled with sudden fear and tension.

Reyan was looking at him without answering.

‘He is joking, right? He is just teasing me…’

But Reyan wasn’t someone who would make jokes about things like this!… he couldn’t actually make jokes, to begin with… The blonde half-mummy was still looking at him with a serious look.

“Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t kill anyone! I even made sure that those mages wouldn’t die!… Hey!”

But Reyan asked another question instead of answering him.

“Kairen…. What exactly did you do back then?”

“Hey! Don’t change the topic!”

“KAIREN!”

Kairen shut his mouth after hearing Reyan’s angry voice.

“Stop making a fuss. We are planning on joining SMF. What kind of job do you think you are going to have? You Should get used to things like this sooner or later. Stop acting like a child!”

“….”

“Besides that, there are more important matters.”

‘Get used to? Get used to what? To killing people? How am I supposed to get used to such a thing?’

Kairen didn’t dare to say his thought out loud as a certain half-mummy dude seemed to be somewhat pissed.

He had killed people, even if they worked for a terrorist group, even if they were the ones who had attacked him, was what he did right? Kairen bit his lip, so hard that it started bleeding. He lowered his head, looking at his right hand’s nails that were pressing the tip of his left hand’s fingers.

Kairen didn’t say anything anymore. He just looked down at his hands with a heavy heart.. Maybe Reyan felt his mood as well because he didn’t say anything else, letting him collect his thoughts.