Enigma of Sin

The moment Kayn entered into the void he could feel the invisible pressure mounting on his body, trying so very hard to annihilate his body bit by bit.

There was a warning included with all of the other information that one shouldn't wear clothing they cared about when attempting this spell. Now he understood why as he watched as the regular street clothing he was wearing began to swiftly vanish into nothingness.

Within only a mere second, panic set in as the protection he was trying to keep up on his body was broken through and his tissues began disappearing, much like when he ignited something with Extinction Flames.

Kayn's thoughts swirled around in his head at an incredibly rapid pace, but nothing he came up with would help him now. He just wasn't strong enough, simple as that. He would perish in this place and could only hope that Charlotte or Kinzie would continue raising Lara for him.

He closed his eyes as he resigned to his fate. He had seconds left at most. His promises meant squat now. Those made to both himself, others that were alive, and those that were dead would not be kept.

Regret and sorrow. That was all he felt at his own powerlessness.

After two more seconds, his mana ran out completely and feeling started to fade from his entire body. Another second later he succumbed to mana exhaustion and fainted.

…

"Sigh, foolish boy. I hope I can trust in you to fulfill my wish as my punishment will not be light. I'm going to have to find a new hiding spot and fully give up on that world too. Haaa, damnit…this better be worth it."

A voice spoke to themselves as they reached out and cast a shield around Kayn made of the purest void elemental mana known to the universe outside of the void itself.

Most of his fingers, toes, skin, and any other outer feature were wiped out already, but he was alive. Hopefully the boy could recover quickly or at least chose a safe spot to arrive at because if not, all of both of their efforts would be for naught.

…

"Ah! What the fuck!" A man yelled out as he scrambled out of the bed that he was sleeping in just moments ago.

"What? What's going on?" Another man yelled out as he barged into the room, only this one was wearing a full set of armor and holding a sword in his hand.

"I was just sleeping and this fucking disgusting body just appeared next to me! Look at it! What the fuck happened to them even? No ears, no nose, bleeding from everywhere, what the fuck man!"

Both men stared at the body for a while before the one with the sword decided to poke at it with his sword, something just seemed off about the situation.

Right as the tip of the sword was about to poke the corpse's torso, he noticed it, the bleeding had stopped. Another moment of waiting longer and he saw flesh begin to grow and wind itself back into place as skin grew on top of that.

The process wasn't instantaneous, but it was visible to the naked eye, similar to a 2nd stage healer casting a healing spell. Both of the men stood rooted in their spots as they witness finger bones starting to form and facial features begin to return to normal on the body they thought was dead.

In a panic the one with the sword lashed out and attempted to behead the individual before whatever was happening finished and they woke up. Even if it turned out to be one of their undead allies, they should have been warned beforehand and couldn't be blamed for killing it.

The sword descended with an incredible speed but rather than the head being sliced clean off, the sword shattered into pieces. Holding onto only a hilt with a broken blade, the man panicked and fell backwards. It was then that the eyes of the once thought dead body shot open and stared at the two men.

"What are you doing in my home?" Every word spoken from the man was filled with malice.

Not understanding the situation, the one who was previously sleeping yelled out, "What the fuck do you mean your house?! Our army claimed this section of housing for the Empire's troops! Get your undead ass back to your side of the city!"

"Undead? Empire's troops? Which empire?"

"The Carnet Empire you dumb shit!" The man yelled with an enraged face.

The man currently on the floor watched the exchange in fear as the still healing body rose up out of the bed and casually walked to the window of the bedroom while mumbling to themselves.

"Carnet? I swear I pictured my room inside the house of the academy perfectly. How did I even survive in the first place?" The man stared at his hands as he walked. Then his entire body started glowing with a soft white light, further increasing the rate at which he was healing.

Within seconds a pristinely sculpted body stood naked staring out of the window. Even after a few moments he didn't move and just blankly stared out the window. The man on the floor stood up and tried to warn his partner with his eyes, but unfortunately, he was too late.

"Can you put some clothes on and get the fuck out now? You ruined the bed and my sleep. Your superiors will hear about th-", but before he could finish his sentence, he felt himself lifted into the air by his neck.

"Begone pest." Without fanfare, the soldier's neck was broken and he was tossed to the side of the room like trash. The remaining soldier scrambled back up against a wall in fear, wishing he could escape from the monster that was slowly approaching him.

"Two 2nd stage Carnet Empire soldiers inside of my room. Millions of Empire soldiers and even more undead inside the city perimeter. How long was I gone? Or did the city somehow fall faster than it should have?"

It appeared that the monster was talking to itself, but it still had its attention on him and he had no chance to get away at this point.

"Answer my questions or die a slow and very painful death." The monster narrowed its eyes at the one remaining soldier.

The soldier vigorously nodded his head. He didn't think he was going to make it out of here alive judging by the visible fury on the monster's face, but at least he could go quickly…he hoped.

"How long ago did the war start?"

"About seven or eight years ago now! I didn't get involved until I was forcefully drafted two years ago! In fact, I tried to flee when the initial information came out that Carnet was working with the liches, but I was caught and thrown in jail until they decided to make me fight!"

'Earth's time is a bit faster than here then. My guess would be about 1.5x faster.' Somewhere in the range of 11 to 12 years should have passed while he was on Earth, but it turned out to only be 7 or 8 here on Talgonoth.

"What is the current state of the war?"

"Carnet and the liches of Inmortuea under Mitas's leadership have all but captured Mancea aside from the royal grounds inside of Palatine where the remaining forces of Mancea have holed themselves up!" 

The man hoped the monster in front of him would come to see him as a victim as well and let him go.

"And what of the people that lived in this city?"

"To my knowledge the ones who didn't decide to change sides were mostly killed. The ones kept alive have been split evenly between Carnet and the liches. The liches fed them to their armies while Carnet turned them into slaves. This was to help relieve the stress of the troops and raise moral as sex slaves or by sending them back to the Empire to work menial labor, this is where the majority ended up."

He immediately regretted saying the last sentence as the furious expression became even worse as he asked his next question.

"Just how many have you killed? How many innocents have you entertained yourself with to 'relieve your stress'? How many families have you ripped apart for a war you know next to nothing about why it was started?"

"I-I-I-" the man stuttered but never finished his sentence as Kayn flicked a wind bullet at his forehead, causing his head to explode.

Kayn turned around to the open area of the bedroom before summoning the Wanderer's Villa and entering inside. He exited an hour later, a full set of hair and short beard, wearing his full set of gear and rings which he had taken off previously and with his core filled to the brim with mana.

He decided to wear the Deceiver's Mask and had it hooked onto the hood of his half-robe as he usually did. He thought about going out without the mask, but it provided him with bonuses to his Dark elemental spells and he wasn't quite ready to reveal himself to the continent yet.

However, that didn't mean he was going to hold back as he usually did when he was playing the part of Jester the assassin. He was going to use his full arsenal and wage a personal war on the armies currently invading Palatine.

As much as he wanted to find his sister right away, he couldn't sense through the last bastion of defense in the city, and to gain access he would need to prove he was an ally or find someone he recognized. 

If he didn't find his sister there, he could only ask about Charlotte and see if she was alive and safe. If she was, he knew that his sister and most likely Kinzie would be too as Charlotte promised to keep his loved ones safe.

Mana allowed him to use Mana Sense without using his own mana, but it also reduced the distance he could sense compared to Earth unfortunately. He only sensed two 6th stage individuals within the walls of the inner ring and they were probably recently advanced.

He proceeded to clear out the other three soldiers that were living in his house before he stepped outside and launched into the air, using his full might to fly to the area where the two 6th stage mages were currently bombarding a large dome of mana with spells along with thousands of 4th and lower stage mages.

The city may have been massive to Kayn before, but now he could travel the entire diameter of the city within minutes and his target wasn't far away to start with.

Kayn hovered high in the sky above a massive golden dome as he watched thousands upon thousands of spells rain down on it every second. He could see that the dome was slowly losing power, but he wasn't able to know how much longer it would last.

An evil grin appeared behind Kayn's mask as he held up a hand and a ball of flame and lava started floating over his head, gradually gaining size as he pumped more and more mana into it.

He was going to start his counterattack off with a bang.