Enigma of Sin

Chapter 189: A Broken Savior

Sitting in meditation, Kayn did the best he could to clear his head, but he ended up having a stray thought on the irony of his situation. He was called the Master of Puppets here, but in truth he was the puppet being led around by multiple masters. He was hopeful for the day when that would no longer be the case.

When he opened his eyes, he did his best not to look around him at the carnage he had wrought. Killing one or two people here and there wasn't nearly as much of a strain on his mental health as outright slaughtering thousands upon thousands was.

Who knows how long he would have to continue fighting like this, mercilessly being the reaper for the fodder that were being sent his way.

The tyranny of rank at the higher stages could not be overlooked. Anyone that was sent at him below the 5th stage stood no chance, no matter how many they sent. It was like Kayn was playing a god with a magnifying glass, burning and incinerating the ants storming about around him.

Kayn simply had to do his best to convince himself that what he was doing was necessary for both his survival and his family's. During this second life, Wrath had been there to alter his psyche and morals, and his ethics weren't quite what they used to be either. Now with his newer Virtue, even sealed, he could feel the lingering regret over so much death caused by his own hands.

As the shouts grew louder from the charging soldiers, Kayn shook his head to try and focus on the battles to come. With his mind calmer than before, he started formulating and acting on a hasty plan.

There were some flying 4th stage soldiers approaching him, but they wouldn't be difficult to take care of. What Kayn needed was a good way to take care of all the others who were marching or running down the streets towards him.

With there being only three entrances to the smaller walls of the palace courtyard, Kayn decided on what his trap would be.

During the time he was preparing himself to come back to Talgonoth, Kayn had discovered that he could create Mana Threads and detach them to leave single trip wires which would slice through anything or anyone unfortunate enough to run through it before realizing what was happening.

Using this application, he set up massive Mana Thread nets from top to bottom on all three entrances as quickly as he could. The approaching soldiers would know that some kind of intense battle had happened with all of the burned ruins and bodies everywhere even before reaching the palace grounds, but Kayn didn't expect them to approach with caution.

It was clear that all of these troops were nothing but expendable and most had probably been forced to participate in this war, but Kayn couldn't afford to think about that. These were his enemies and for the safety of the people he cared about, they had to die.

…

The soldiers being driven forward by their stronger counterparts were becoming more and more worried as they moved through the inner ring. Seeing destruction and death everywhere had been common for the war, but never had they seen such a one-sided slaughter.

There were no enemy troops among the dead, only those from either Carnet or the undead of Inmortuea. Buildings were half melted and some bodies were nothing more than blackened charcoal in their position of retreat trying to get away from whatever hit them.

Regardless if they wanted to retreat or not, they couldn't, with their stronger 4th stage leaders pushing the progress forward at ever increasing paces. What was a steady march had turned into a sprint as the gates to the palace grounds appeared in sight.

There was a very short tunnel through a wall to get to the palace courtyard which had the last remaining defense inside centered on the palace with a large area of previously gardens and walkways being outside of the dome but inside the wall.

It was only after a few moments that the leaders ushering the troops from the back realized something was wrong as rather than continuing to run forward, there was screaming and push-back from the front troops to go back.

At each gate, the leaders tried to use violence to keep them moving forward, but eventually they all gave up as the forward push came to a halt and the higher stage scouts came back from flying or leaping over the walls to inform them that they needed to stop moving forward.

Apparently, anyone who ran or was shoved through the final part of the tunnel at the courtyard went from being a single person to being rectangular shaped cuboids. When the troops cleared out the entrance to the tunnels and the commanders were able to see what was happening, one of them even threw up.

Blood and meat chunks were now forming massive barriers just outside of the tunnels. None of them had ever heard of any trap emplacements that could do that to a person nor had any such defenses been activated until now.

Unfortunately, they were following orders as much as they were meant to enforce them, so they began the tedious work of getting their armies up and over the walls until the invisible trap that was turning their people into chunks of flesh was gone.

…

Kayn had kept himself hidden up until this point, watching as the scouts and flyers came into the courtyard area and examined what was happening before retreating back to the wall. It was only when his Mana Sense told him that the thousands of people were now climbing over all points of the wall that he acted.

Knowing he had a very long fight ahead of him, he needed to regulate his mana expenditure with what he was getting back passively, so rather than use big flashy mana intensive moves, he drew his sword once more.

He infused his body with various elements and launched himself into the air with his wings before dive bombing straight into one of the crowds at the top of the massive circular wall. Thus began Kayn's seemingly endless slaughter.

…

"How many days has it been now Alman?" The Emperor of Mancea asked while glancing at his old friend, who was once the headmaster of the most prestigious academy in his empire.

"According to those keeping watch while the rest of us have been regaining our strength, 17."

"And why are we still inside of this damned bubble instead of out there with whoever that is trying to defend our Empire?" The Emperor was a massive beast of a man, literally. He had the head of a white tiger, but the body of a hairy giant. He stood a good head and a half taller than Alman, but the two had been friends for centuries now.

"We've almost replenished the near emptied reserves for the mana dome. Months of them pounding on our walls and that single person held them off for long enough to restore the damage done. I do believe that we are just about ready to join them in the battle your highness."

"Good! Prepare the others. We will depart this dome for the first time in months with a renewed hope of not just survival, but victory!" The Emperor declared aloud.

Alman looked to his friend and gave a sad smile. There was hope for survival, only if they ran though. This wasn't a battle they could win, even with the new addition who had been fighting relentlessly outside.

Alman wasn't skilled in sensing other individual's core stage, but he did have a spell that could read the lingering mana after they had cast a spell. What he didn't understand was that a spell he knew was at least 11th or 12th tier gave him a reading of being from a 2nd stage core. It just wasn't possible.

Not to mention that over the course of these 17 days, the mystery fighter had slain not just the initial three 6th stagers, but also two others who had come in the following battles. He only knew what stage the combatants were because he had seen or fought them himself previously.

Now, as he was staring off at the ongoing battle, he frowned. The mystery fighter had been looking more and more exhausted as the days went on and they were currently fighting a losing battle against a 6th stage lich, a SSS-rank undead ogre minion, and a 6th stage human.

The ogre and human were both engaged in close combat with the fighter while the lich stayed in the back casting one spell after another. Both sides had sustained injuries, mainly due to the mystery fighter somehow using all of the elements and with a mastery over them that most could never reach with a single element in their lives.

For 17 days this individual had battled against the forces of two empires by themself. The ground surrounding the mana dome was coated and probably permanently dyed red by now. There should have been bodies piled higher than the dome itself, but when they started to become an impediment to the person's battles, they set the bodies aflame with a strange black flame that left nothing behind.

Just as it looked like the individual was about to kill the human, something that Alman couldn't see hit the individual's head, proving a good distraction for the human to get away and the ogre to grab one of the wings coming from the person's back.

A black clad figure then shimmered into existence and stabbed a malevolent looking blade straight through the individual's torso, right where the core usually sat. The ogre proceeded to put both wings in one hand and smash the individual into the ground repeatedly.

Alman clenched his fists in anger as the Emperor arrived behind him with the remainder of who could fight. The Emperor as well grit his teeth as he was only just seeing what was happening, "DAMNIT!"

The Emperor smashed his fist against the barrier in rage. "We waited too fucking long, and now our savior died because of our inaction. I'm a coward of a leader, letting someone else fight my battle for that long."

Just as Alman was about to say something, the wings ripped off of the individual who was still being slammed into the ground. Since the wings ripped off mid swing though, the body was sent flying towards the dome and smashed up against it right before their eyes.

The bloodied and beaten body then slid down the protective dome until it hit the ground where it slumped lifelessly. At least the group gathered thought so until the person started to move their arm in shaking jerky movements.

It was only now that the group managed to catch a glimpse of their savior through the broken mask that used to adorn his face. Snow-white hair stained red and slick with blood stuck to his face as his red eyes stared out into the distance with a hollow look.

"GET HIM INSIDE RIGHT NOW!" One of the group members yelled as soon as they saw his face.

Without hesitation the Emperor opened a section of the barrier and grabbed the individual, dragging them inside before he reactivated the barrier just as a lance of bone struck right where the body had been.

A woman with fluffy white ears and tail knelt down next to the beaten and defeated man as she brushed the hair to reveal his face while also casting her most potent healing spell. She was startled at the realization of who this was, but thankful that he was alive.

"Do you know this individual Royal Healer Whiteclaw?" The Emperor asked as he could feel the sense of familiarity she had to the mystery fighter.

Clara Whiteclaw didn't pause her healing for a second, but nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"He was one of the professors of the healing department at Astaro and my daughter's personal tutor for about a year before the start of the war. He disappeared during the initial attack on the healer convention, so we assumed he was dead. Charlotte Erving took his daughter and girlfriend away for protection a few years into the war. This is Kayn Ashan."