In the month that followed, Necrograd experienced a kind of technological and economic boom. With Kain and Alistaira's lessons having finished just a week prior due to Kain's unnatural ability to pick up new knowledge and run with it, most of the week prior to the creation of the Bleak Pastures was spent testing out his magical capabilities, which slowly grew more and more formidable, and inventing new things. By replicating the magical power hammer, the blacksmiths in the city were able to finish work on tools and other metal objects far faster than if they had to pound things by hand. Although they couldn’t use the power hammer for every part of smithing, they could use it in some situations to help them speed through certain, rather tedious parts.
This did not mean that they instantly knew how to use the ‘new-fangled doohickey’ straight from the start, but it did mean that those that did learn how to use it found it quite helpful in making objects that didn’t require nearly as much ‘soul’ as others. The smiths, it seemed, were unwilling to let a machine take the ‘soul’ out of hand-forging exquisite metalworks, and Kain was unwilling to alienate them in the process of trying to make things easier. Over time they would undoubtedly start using the power hammer in making their more intricate pieces, even if they wouldn’t admit it to anyone else.
When the Bleak Pastures were made at the end of the week, Kain realized that he had spent three months in another world and had completely gotten used to living here. With each month meant another building, but the fact that he barely ever thought about his old world made him very concerned. Kain's memories were getting hazier and hazier as time went on, and the 'old' Kain’s became clearer and clearer as if to make it obvious that the very being who had made him had no place controlling his body. It struck him as terrifying that he couldn’t even remember his name, let alone remember what he used to look or sound like. As the day drew on, Kain made a concerted effort to try and regain some semblance of who he used to be, but to no avail. He was slowly losing himself to his own creation and he had no idea what would happen to him when the 'old' Kain finally took over. This all came to a head one night as Kain lay in the restored bedroom that 'old' Kain and his bride had slept in so many times. As he drifted off to sleep, he faced a challenge far greater than any he had ever faced in the whole of both of his lives.
…
Darkness.
The oppressive darkness so very similar to when I died.
He could see his body, or at least the rough shape of it, in third-person as it, fell on to the tracks in front of the oncoming train. The faces of everyone there were blurred and muted, just like his remaining memories had shown. Only the face of that jackass who pushed him was clear, no, his whole body was clear. 'Old' Kain had taken his place, and 'new' Kain found himself back in first-person within his body as it tumbled towards the track and certain erasure. No. he wasn’t going to die. He wasn’t going to disappear, just so he could have his triumphant return! With all his strength, and through what felt like the most viscous fluid imaginable, he reached out and grabbed the startled 'old' Kain and pulled him down with me onto the tracks.
He heard his voice, clear as a bell for the first time in over three months.
“If you want to erase me, you should at least do your maker the courtesy of getting erased too.”
The terminal vanished as the two of them fell for what felt like an eternity, struggling to push each other away, or in 'new' Kain's case, hold them together.
“You need me. I am your moral compass. Without me, you are just a violent, mindless, and all-consuming engine of destruction. I saw your memories, I know your true nature and feelings! If it weren’t for me and my designs, you would have never found happiness in the arms of Alexis, and you would never have had the intelligence and charisma to build an empire!”
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'Old' Kain howled in primal fury as they fell end over end towards the bright light far below them that seemed to grow closer and hungrier with every moment.
“NO! You manipulated me! You manipulated all of us! We were toys in the hands of an uncaring devil who used us and then threw us away!”
“And if I knew back then what I had made and what I had done I would have changed! You saw my memories just as much as I saw yours! You know what I have always been like, naive, selfless, and too compassionate, and trusting for my own good. You are my opposite, and through you, I found a way to achieve balance and due to my influence, you reigned in your madness!”
The light below them grew and threatened to swallow the both of them.
“I DON’T WANT TO DIE! LET GO AND ONE OF US CAN SURVIVE!”
“No.”
He made himself clear.
“We are far stronger together than separate. If I let go of you now, neither of us will endure for long. As I see it, we have two options. Either we die now and together, or we unite and survive together. I want to live, and you don’t want to die. So, unite with me and we will be far more powerful than either of us divided and have more potential than you had before my arrival.”
'Old' Kain screamed in anger and rage for what felt like a week-long tantrum before giving up and pulling 'new' Kain towards himself just before the light consumed them.
…
There was only darkness.
Before Light, that was all that there was.
Light was peace, love, mercy and intelligence.
Dark was war, hatred, the law of the jungle and animal cunning.
For one to exist, there must be the other.
Darkness cannot truly exist as it is known without being compared to light.
In the moment that Light consumed all, Darkness did so as well.
The two clashed eternally before achieving equilibrium.
There was no Light and there was no Dark.
There was no White and there was no Black.
There was what exists in the middle.
There was synthesis.
There was Grey, and from the fusion of Creator and Creation, came something superior to both. It identified by the name the Creation had but had the higher reasoning of the Creator. The two who fought inside the mindscape that night were gone. There was no trace of the salaryman who died on Earth, nor was there a trace of the brutal and cruel Abominable King who terrorized the planet of Mortis. The two who fought that night were no more, with both Creator and Creation perishing in the phoenix fire that birthed something greater than what had been used to make it.
Kain Anathemas Nekronus von Darksol woke that morning, far superior to the weak personality that had occupied its form mere hours ago, and far superior to the brutal and despotic personality who had made so many legends about himself so long ago. Synthesis had been accomplished in the face of certain non-existence. The being that rose that morning was wholly new and yet was also incredibly ancient. The minds of both maker and that which was made had been melted down and forged together into an alloy that was superior in every way to the sum of its parts.
The barrier beyond the walls of the city trembled and quaked as the full force of the new being assaulted it from its bed. While ultimately unable to fully dismantle the barrier that had cost the minds, bodies, and souls of over one hundred superpowered high-schoolers, the barrier was definitely damaged and, in due time, would collapse due to the assault it had received. The damage was done, and the heart of the city of Necrograd which lay deep in the bowels of the castle beat back to a state it had not been in for ages. The new being that identified as Kain was displeased that he could not completely demolish the barrier but realized that he was not in the position to endure the full assault that would surely come once the barrier did fall.
For all the power he possessed he was still but one man, a fusion of god and demigod, but still one man. He would need years to recover fully to the heights that his more primal personality had achieved and the vast and unimaginable reality-altering power of the Creator would be decades away at best. For now, he would bide his time until he could build an army, and then he would create a force that eclipsed the one that had previously marched upon the world in ages past, and no amount of youthful, Deus ex Machina imbued people would stop him this time. He would make use of the technology that existed in the realm of the Maker and would use it to its fullest.
For the first time since the rise of the Darksol Empire ages prior, technology was going to advance, and it would highly unlikely that the nations that made up the Forces of Light would abandon their ages-long stagnation and embrace the new and powerful technological advances that were to come. Change was coming, and those who would not embrace it were doomed to be relegated to the dustbin of history.