Enigma of Sin

"You're here to offer me my life in exchange for my soul or something right? Well, I don't want it, so be gone you devil!" Carl Vasquez shouted out.

"That's not so dissimilar to what happened to me, but no, that's not why I'm here. I'm here to return the kindness you showed to a scared and angry young man who had just lost his parents almost 22 years ago now." Kayn answered in a smooth calming tone.

"Huh?" a confused noise came out of Carl's mouth as he didn't expect some case that he worked on over 20 years ago to be brought up.

"You see, you sat down with him and talked him through it all. You tried to get him to look at the future past his father dying and mother most likely needing care for the rest of her life, if she survived. Unfortunately, she didn't make it and, in his rage, he lashed out which resulted in another tragic death.

"But what you did in trying to sit down with him and talk him through things mattered more than you think. Especially when you distracted me by talking about how excited you were for your second daughter to be born, though you lamented that my father couldn't deliver for your wife again." Kayn paused and smiled as he watched Carl's face twist in confusion.

"How? How do you know that? I didn't write any of our conversation in my report, just the facts. There's no way anyone besides myself and that kid would have known it, and he's dead." 

"I did just reveal that it was me you were talking to, did I not? As I said before, I made a deal with the Devil. So here I am."

Former Officer Vasquez stared at Kayn's gentle smile in confusion and he couldn't help but think his time might be drawing close faster than he thought if he was hallucinating such a realistic and ridiculous conversation.

"It looks like you need to get some sleep, I'll be on my way soon enough. Thank you for being one of the good ones Officer Vasquez. Truly, thank you. As a gift in return, you'll have your life back by the time you wake up. Goodbye Officer Vasquez." Kayn spoke as he watched the man's eyes close, soon drifting into dreamland.

Sighing, Kayn got to work. He treated this chance at life much how one of his favorite book characters did with his second chance, setting the golden rule as an example of how he should live. This was why he would always returned goodwill with greater kindness and evil with mercilessness.

Now was his chance to return Officer Vasquez's goodwill back to him as he wouldn't have another chance.

…

Carl Vasquez woke up the next day to a room full of doctors, nurses, and his family members. He couldn't believe the number of people who were all jam packed in his hospital room. There were even doctors poking and prodding him here and there, one of them even took tissue samples from his right arm then his leg.

He couldn't help but think that maybe they were all here because he was about to die, hence why his family was all crying, but they looked oddly relieved and happy. Wait…his right arm? Right leg?

Carl moved his neck, without being in pain, to look down at his body which was no longer all bandaged up. He saw his right arm and leg and with the urge to move them, he shook them around, feeling exhilarated for the first time in years.

He was healed! All of the burns, all of the lacerations, his missing limbs, everything! It was all healed, just like that! He really couldn't imagine what had happened for this to occur, but it was a miracle!

Then a strange scene floated through his mind, something he vaguely recalled from the night before. A scene where a strange man thanked him for a case from over 20 years ago. He didn't remember all of the details as they were hazy in his head, but he did remember one thing, that man said he was the one who died and that he was also going to repay him.

Carl Vasquez suddenly started crying and laughing in the middle of the room while his family members and the bewildered health care workers were staring at him in confusion.

He soon stopped laughing before mumbling under his breath so that others couldn't hear, "Thank you Carter Pierce, or whoever you have now become."

…

A few days later, the hospital caring for Carl Vasquez was going to break the news to the media to bring some hope to the people by showing them unexplained miracles do happen, but before they could an even bigger story took over every media outlet.

All across the United States, entire children's hospitals and terminal youth centers had their patients cured of their afflictions and every single one of them was now healthier than a normal child.

A few days later, the entirety of the Americas had similar situations, and over the next couple of weeks, every youth hospital across the world reported the same thing, every child was healed or cured. No one knew how or what had happened and they could only attribute it to being a miracle.

Though, there were a few who thought it definitely wasn't a coincidence and there had to be someone doing it.

One specific research doctor looked into the sky, "This was you, wasn't it?"

Dr Elaine sighed as she focused back on the situation before her. While the rest of the world was celebrating the healing of their sick and afflicted children, the military was still forcing its members to work like grunts, trying to figure out a way to win the war and obtain the energy from the temples they were surrounding.

She had warned the local commander that this temple would soon be unable to protect them, but he dismissed her claim after a few days since nothing happened.

Just as she thought that maybe that mysterious man had left this temple alone as opposed to what he said, she watched as a researcher tripped over some equipment and fell into the entrance of the temple where they would normally be gently pushed back out, but he hit the ground hard, face first.

It looked quite painful to Dr Elaine, but her thoughts were on something else. Now that they could enter, that meant this temple was most likely no longer safe. They needed to leave before anything happened, even if none of the world's powers had disobeyed Kayn's orders so far.

From what Dr Elaine understood, the world leaders had all heard Kayn's threat. While they couldn't understand where or who it came from, the words emanated all around them had caused extreme fear.

…

While the UNTA troops and scientists scrambled to get everything packed up so that they could evacuate to a new safe zone, one man was sitting inside of the temple, feeling more refreshed than ever as the mana here felt cleaner and purer than any he had encountered before.

The temple belonging to Clementine really didn't teach him much about the elements, but his mana felt as the mana of the temple did, clean and pure. His mana was powerful and potent before, but now it had a certain feeling of flawlessness to it.

Kayn tested his new mana with the light element because he had the feeling that his cleaned mana would complement the light element well. Just as he suspected, it improved the comforting and calming feeling of being flushed with light, much like he felt inside the temple.

The mana his core generated now was so different from his original mana that if his parents saw him now, they probably wouldn't think he was actually their son, at first at least. He instinctively felt that his mana signature had also changed over the last two plus years, so that would be a pain once he got back to the academy, but he would deal with everything once he got back.

Just before he could leave the room where he found the core formation for the inheritance, he was blocked by a soft and invisible wall that pushed him back inside. Before he could even wonder what was happening, a gentle female voice entered into his mind.

"Hello young one. I have seen the actions you've taken as of late and have deemed you fit to receive something a bit more special from me. As I am someone that holds something similar to you and I am willing to relinquish mine to you as you seem to be collecting. I'm also ready to be free from this burden."