But no sooner had Kane left than he was attacked by two strangers.
"Haha, so he was a liar too? Or not? That is the question!"
Dodging the incoming head attack, Kane couldn't completely evade it, and a small scratch appeared on his cheek, which amused him.
"Ah, how fun!"
Attacking back, he noticed that all of his attacks were perfectly blocked.
Vsss.
No sooner had he rejoiced than an arrow pierced his shoulder.
"Now I understand, ahah."
With every second of the fight, his thirst only grew, and his pleasure too. Casting a fleeting glance at the one who shot the arrow, he took advantage of the other's bewilderment and launched a top-down attack that the other could only half block.
"Hey, hey! I just found that recently!"
Jumping back from them, Kane realized that he wouldn't be allowed to regroup so easily.
Vsss.
Kane dodged the arrow, but didn't manage to completely move away from the sword strike, and a second cut appeared on his chest. Both cuts weren't deep, allowing him to stop most of the blood thanks to his muscles.
"Now it's only good for the trash… What a pity."
Whoosh.
Kane rushed into the attack, aiming for the head.
Clang.
But the opponent easily parried his blow. Kane expected that.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
He began to launch rapid blows, which the opponent blocked without trouble. But Kane's tactic was different: as long as he was too close, the other wouldn't shoot, which meant one thing: his archery skills weren't that good. In addition, the terrain worked to his advantage.
No matter how hard he tried to push his opponent towards the archer, the archer would simply retreat back until he completely disappeared into the forest.
"Don't get distracted."
Clang.
"Hahaha, look who's talking! I thought you were mute."
Vsss.
Crack.
Clang.
"Almost got it. Hah."
Breaking the flying arrow with his sword, Kane managed to deflect the sword flying towards his neck at the last second.
"Ahaha, without hesitation, you want to take the life of such a cute boy like me!"
"Hah, a cute boy? Your appearance says otherwise."
After these words, the opponent sped up, and Kane barely managed to defend himself, changing his tactics: now he only deflected the blows that were directed at vital spots.
Strike.
Seeing blood flowing from his wound, he felt ecstasy. Even if it was an insignificant wound, the point was that in all their fight, he had managed to land his first successful blow, and that pleased him.
Clang.
"He's gotten faster," Kane thought, starting to realize that the opponents had been holding back all this time.
Vsss.
An arrow pierced straight through his leg.
"So fast," he thought, finally realizing where he had seen these two before, and unconsciously his smile widened.
"How's… that one-armed guy doing?"
Hesitating for a moment at Kane's words…
Strike.
"Hahah, another one!"
Crack.
Kane tried to deflect the blow, but his sword couldn't withstand it any longer, and it shattered. Before he could recover, a sword pierced his chest.
"I… lost."
"And I won."
Pulling out the sword, the opponent watched as Kane, no longer able to stand, simply fell.
"It's all over, Captain."
Running up to him, Rein examined Kane's lying body.
"Yes, all over."
Shaking the blood off his sword and putting it back in its scabbard, he turned to Rein and, looking at his pale face, spoke:
"Ah, I told you not to use magic during the morning training."
…What a pity that he died like this… And I was thinking for so long what I would do with him… What a pity.
Ignoring the captain, Rein turned and went back to Orario.
"I'm so tired. Let's go, Captain, what are you… stiff for?"
Cough, cough.
Rein's eyes widened at what he saw. He was in such shock that he couldn't even move a limb. The captain's neck was pierced straight through with a broken sword. He couldn't believe it. Behind him, he saw Kane's smiling face. He finally came to his senses, and a feeling of anger filled him.
Whoosh.
"Captaaaain!"
Rushing forward, Rein knew it was useless, he watched as the captain began to choke on his own blood. In his eyes, there was only one question: "How?"
Bang.
But, before he could do anything, Rein saw the captain's head fly into the air. He couldn't believe what he saw. All the rage evaporated, and pain and emptiness took its place. Time seemed to slow down for him. He remembered everything he had been through with the captain. Tears began to flow from his eyes.
Plop.
The head rolled right to his feet. With trembling hands, picking it up, he saw a face frozen in a silent question: "How?"
"Capi…."
Before he could finish, his head also flew into the air.
"Hahaha, I almost died. Hah, but even so, it was fun. Ahah."
Bang.
"Annoying."
Crushing the archer's head and taking off his clothes, Kane headed to Orario, hoping that was the right direction, but first searching the corpses. Find a couple of recovery potions…
"I want more. Aha."
Running, he could already see the Tower of Babel, feeling Kopi taking over his body.
Time later.
Ugh.
Kane vomited from the memories as he regained control, but unlike other times, he remembered everything perfectly: every moment when he tore out guts, gouged out eyes, broke arms and necks. He remembered every moment so clearly that he felt more and more disgusted.
"What, like a child?"
"Shut up!"
Ugh.
"You wanted to kill them all yourself. Didn't you?"
"SHUT UP!!!"
"Whoa, whoa, how angry we are."
"SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!!"
Ugh.
"What are you throwing up now? Digestive juices?"
"Shut…"
Ugh.
"What beautiful faces they had. Just wonderful, wonderful! And especially the last ones. I would still like to look at the face of the one who pierced us through. But what a pity… Well, actually, whatever."
"Shut up."
Kane said muffled, but Kopi didn't pay attention and continued:
"How lucky we were that he missed the heart. You have to pray for luck that you were born like that… How good that your heart is on the right side, not the left. We are just lucky."
Kane fell exhausted on the bed. He wanted to forget it like a bad dream, but the flashing scenes in his head didn't let him forget it even for a second. And also the culprit of all this was chattering non stop.
"Do you thirst?"
Finally he asked the question that had tormented him since the beginning of his awakening.
"Yes. Didn't you know?"
"How?"
"What, how?"
"How can you talk to me? I always thought you were just my schizo, that's all, but yesterday's case changed my mind. How can a feeling that I copied gain consciousness?"
"Why do you think you copied the feelings of monsters?"
"Huh?"
"Say, why do you think so? Who told you that you copied feelings?"
"…"
"You imagined that when you were betrayed you copied the feelings of monsters. If that were the case then how could you control yourself? I have my own theory about this."
"… Well what is it?"
"You didn't copy feelings, but the essence. In other words, I'm the monster, I just evolved and gained consciousness… Probably. But it fits more than your nonsense."
After his words, Kane thought. No matter how hard he tried to say that it was nonsense and that it couldn't be, but why does his theory sound so much more convincing and explain the moments that he cannot understand.
"If that's how you say it… Then how is that possible? How can my skill copy the essence itself?"
"How should I know?"
"I see."
"What do you see? You stupid being."
Grabbing his mouth with his hands, he ran to the toilet.
"Are you kidding me?"
Ugh.
"How ha me now ah forget?"
Ugh.