Chapter 204: Selfish and Stubborn
"Hand him over, or you’ll give me no other choice."
"Living in the sky had poisoned your mind, senior. I am a human," Kai looked down at Panas, and then forward again. "This boy is a human. You, Grines, Makos, Damas, Fimos, Rob—we are all humans!"
"Yes, we all are humans." Asher nodded and then pointed at Panas with his sword. "But his brother is a guilty human."
"Guilty...?"
"I am sure he already told this, considering how arrogantly upright he was, but let me remind you that Grines is the one who made the mistake. He was the one who allowed one of the Star Beasts to fall into the hive in the First Sky. Some died because of his mistake."
"But that’s an honest mista—"
"An honest mistake?" Asher sneered—at his answer. "Are you going to also use that excuse to the Angels who lost their parents because of that Star Beast? You’re going to tell those Angels who lost their family members that they died because of an honest mistake?"
"It’s not your decision to make!" Kai gritted his teeth. "If you want to play that way, then take it out on Grines! Leave the boy alone."
"Your emotions really got the better of you, huh?" Asher exhaled exasperatedly. "What would happen after Grines is dead? That boy is going to be executed the next day, as Grines is not a High Angel. Regardless, both of them are doomed to die.
"I am simply making their deaths more beneficial for mankind." He spread his arms to the side. "By making me stronger. Can’t you see it? I am the only one who’s trying his hardest to make a good thing out of a bad thing."
Kai brooded on his spot.
Even with his draconic mask on, one could tell that his face was twisted darkly.
Fighting against Asher, who was really strong, as Kai observed earlier, would be difficult. He has a low chance of winning, especially considering that the seniors seemed to have far better mana control to increase their physicality even further.
Despite having similar mana to Kai’s, their physique was superior.
It would be better to avoid a fight.
Kai was hoping that he could convince Asher to abandon this barbaric act.
Hoping to pry his heart open and make him see reason, but after hearing the words that came out of his mouth and seeing the eyes behind the mask, Kai realized that the person standing before him was no longer human.
Just a monster in human skin.
No matter how hard he knocked on his hardened heart, it would never open.
Never see reason.
Despite looking as human as any other, Asher was no longer one—thus, using guilt to make him stop wouldn’t work. A monster couldn’t feel guilty by a human’s standard, the same way an animal wouldn’t feel guilty for killing and eating a baby.
Perhaps the Second Sky has shed his humanity. Perhaps the divine bloodline of Atreus made him inhuman like this. Or perhaps he was already like this from the start. Either way—Asher no longer had a heart.
Kai gripped the Blood-phantom Scimitar’s handle tightly, preparing to fight.
And Asher noticed this.
"Look away this one time, Lesser Angel Kai." He said, giving Kai another chance. However—from his voice alone, this was most certainly the very last chance Kai is going to get. "Don’t be a hero.
"Throughout the tales of the old, you should know how all heroes end up. Dead in vain."
Kai rose to his feet and straightened his spine.
He looked at Asher, but his gaze was completely different. Colder. More dangerous.
"When my sister died, I swore I would grow strong enough so that I wouldn’t be bullied again—and burn the sky to ash. And from the words that came out of your mouth, it sounds like you have taken the sky’s side." Kai’s body began to seethe with mana, and darkness began to eat the whites of his eyes until only two abyssal orbs remained. "You picked the side across from me."
"Burn the sky?" Asher chuckled. "Your aspiration is too great for your position. Last chance."
"No. This is your last chance." Kai raised his scimitar; the blade caught the sunlight. "Leave— or I’ll put you to sleep. Forever. You said I do not have a reason to be here. To go against your barbarity. You are wrong. You paired Bree and me with Grines, even though you want him dead. That means you also wanted me dead."
Asher nodded.
He had no comeback to what Kai said, as it was the truth.
Since the two of them got close to Panas, he thought it’d be better for them to die.
That way, nobody would be suspicious when Grines died in the Sky Gate.
But that plan was a total failure.
"So that’s how it’s going to be." Asher spread his arms to the side. "Then so be it."
As he said that, Kai spotted the signs of something coming from the entrance to the Sky Gate.
It is like the emergence of a massive fish on the surface of the sea. First, the flickering in the calm surface that seemed like the sea breeze. Then the charge of energy, an expanding force coming from something powerful, the spark of blue, the shifting wind, and then finally the monsters.
However, these monsters are not scorpions, undead, or even wild animals that he had seen.
They wore masks, their forms sliced through the sky on powerful winged boots as masters of the sky, and their eyes were utterly devoid of humanity. A wave of mana swept over Kai, hot and searing, like a flame licking across his skin.
Then, like a gargantuan fish erupting from the ocean’s surface to blot out the sun, two figures loomed over him, casting their shadows to envelop the Lesser Angel. Makos and Damas had been called, and now they stood not as seniors, but as executioners.
"So, there’s no talking him out of this?" Makos asked, placing the axe on his shoulder.
"A stubborn one." Asher turned around and waved his hand. "Take the kid away from him— but make sure to rough him up in the process. Leave him half-dead. Do not kill him. It’ll be a hassle to deal with later if he dies."
Ignoring him completely, Asher returned to steering the pot again.
"Don’t die." Kai looked back at Panas. "Your brother is fighting for you—You should do the same. No matter what you think, one thing is certain if you die right here. Your brother would be more than devastated. More so than you can imagine."
Panas clenched his fists, and then hope returned to him. "What are you going to do...?"
"I’m going to deal with them."
"Can you even do that? They are your seniors."
Kai didn’t answer.
He remained silent, knowing that his victory was uncertain.
"Just leave him there," Makos said nonchalantly. "You heard what Asher said. We won’t grab the kind until we beat you half to death. You have our word. Besides, I want to see what makes you this confident."
"Senior Makos. Senior Damas. I’ve respected you as my seniors before, but now that you have sided with the vile animal, forgive me, but I can no longer view you the same." Kai raised the Blood-phantom Scimitar to his face.
He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the cold black steel.
"Bella, watch me show you how strong I’ve become. Goddess, show your power through me."
Makos and Damas couldn’t hear the whisper that came out of Kai’s mouth.
But they thought it was a chant.
Prayer, maybe, in preparation for a possible death.
The sunlight poured down directly overhead, a blazing glare that should’ve inhibited most of Kai’s power. As the Son of the Primordial Night, the sun didn’t make him weaker, but it blocked most of his abilities from being used to their fullest potential.
Even with his power at its peak, beating two experienced and superior enemies is difficult.
Now, it was very unlikely to win.
However, as the words left his lips, the dark fabric of his uniform began to bleed—spreading outward like ink dropped into water. It coiled around his body with deliberate intent, layering itself until he was shrouded in an inch-thick darkness that drank the sunlight—and gave only darkness back.
One could even see the light being slowly pulled towards the darkness and devoured.
It was an unnatural sight.
Makos and Damas frowned in unison.
"A Pyre Overload?"
"Moros doesn’t have darkness in his kit. This is strange."
They were facing a Lesser Angel. A Supernal of Moros. And yet Kai commanded the darkness as if it were an extension of his own body. A fluid, breathing limb. An unnatural ability, as no Supernal of Moros possesses this kind of power.
Kai’s eyes opened.
He stood straighter, and the gaze he lifted to meet them wasn’t the gaze of a concerned man.
It was a cold gaze—colder than Antarctica’s heart and deeper than the ocean’s darkest trench.
Despite his situation, the gaze suggested that he was not in peril at all.
He stood against the two looming figures with the Blood-phantom Scimitar ready in his hand, and for a single suspended moment—the power dynamic shifted to Kai’s favour. Damas and Makos became wary of him.
And then finally, Kai moved.
Being pressured from the front by two seniors, he should assume a defensive fighting style.
Stay patient and wait for them to make a mistake.
But Kai didn’t choose to defend.
Against two superior enemies, he chose to attack.
Swoosh—!
Mana bursts from the soles of his winged boots as the wings flap powerfully and launch Kai forward. He rammed straight at Damas with a savage horizontal swing, and the scimitar met Damas’ sword with a shriek of steel.
Sparks flew from the friction.
And the strength behind the blow made Damas’ eyes narrow.
A fraction of recognition and a sliver of surprise as Kai was stronger than expected.
And in that sliver, the scimitar’s edge lustered with dark mana and burst.
Swish—!
An energy arc screamed from the blade, phased through Damas’ sword like it was an illusion, and slammed into Damas’ neck perfectly. Blood sprayed, drawing grotesque lines. The arc bit deep, carving through flesh, and Damas’ eyes went wide with the cold shock of death.
It was the Dark Discharge Imprint.
Kai knew this imprint could be used to instantly kill anyone who wasn’t aware of what it does.
Makos reacted on instinct.
He swung his axe in a brutal arc that caught Kai’s scimitar and sent him hurtling downward like a comet. The impact was thunderous, but Makos’ mind was already racing. That arc. That speed. If Damas had been even a fraction weaker, his head would’ve rolled.
’A Lesser Angel being this strong...’ Makos looked down at where Kai landed. ’Did he already reach his full potential?’
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