Nelsen glowed with light of justice and launched himself at Kaden. The speed was so fast that there was barely any time for Kaden to act. He merely had the time to raise Vengeance and his claws to block the enormous sword that he didn't really even want to try to block.

At the moment Nelsen slammed against Kaden and his defenses, Kaden felt his mana armor shatter and force enter into him as he was knocked backwards. The burning tree behind him, that he hit, exploded into splinters and Kaden's flight was stopped by it.

Kaden vomited a bit of blood, but he ignored it. He trusted his body. Indeed, he was still in a fighting condition.

Nelsen stood a distance away from Kaden. There Kaden could hear him mutter some kind of prayer to keep up his state.

"I knew Nelsen was a damn fanatic", Kaden thought to himself and spit out some of the remaining blood in his mouth. "I better end this quickly." Then he decided to mock Nelsen a bit. "If that was your best, you better beg your god for some more power. That is if Jorn bothers to listen."

Kaden's plume flashed and he rushed at Nelsen. He knew he was at his best at close range and Nelsen with his huge sword would be at disadvantage. If he let Nelsen do big attacks like before, he might as well forfeit the fight and he had no intention doing so.

Nelsen retaliated by using his huge sword as basically a shield as Kaden moved in and out around him. With a few spells mixed in between Kaden was able to land a few attacks, but nothing that would ensure victory.

If the surroundings were not blasted apart or set on flame after the first few strikes, soon after the entire area was torn apart. The fires were spreading too. This was not problem for Kaden, but he was not a fan of extended battles. In fact, the explosions and the fire would eventually attract attention and that was the last thing he wanted.

The problem was that Kaden felt something was wrong. Wherever Nelsen struck, Kaden started feeling burning sensation. Not exactly fiery one, but something else. At the moment he noticed it, it was still acceptable levels.

"It's justice mana", Kaden thought to himself as he launched himself back at Nelsen after being flung a distance away.

Kaden sensed himself. The mana was sticking to him. That sort of mana was something that would punish 'wrong doers'. Kaden had no illusions of what he was in this context. It didn't matter. The burning sensation might be bearable for the moment, but eventually it would grow and bring forth 'justice' based on amount of Kaden's sins.

"If Nelsen thinks about judging me, he can forget about it!" Kaden continued his thoughts.

Kaden released more mana from his core. That is to say, he pulled out more than he could usually control, but he did not need to maintain control. Just to flush away the offending justice mana.

Yet, it wouldn't budge.

While Kaden was paying attention to this newest turn of events, Nelsen struck again. This time Kaden was able to block the enormous sword as Nelsen was not quite able to load as much force as before. The strike came from above as a swing and shock passed through Kaden body as he braced to block it.

Perhaps a normal human of his cultivation level would have suffered heavy damage, but not Kaden. Instead he released a burst of flame right afterwards and stepped out of Nelsen's range.

More justice mana stuck on him like glue.

"What have you done", Nelsen said at this time. "I barely need to release mana of justice and it almost seeks you out."

Kaden spit out some blood and sneered at Nelsen.

"Your pathetic justice is a lie", Kaden told Nelsen. "Its just your opinion or general opinion. Laws. Whatever. Have you not watched those stronger than you do whatever it is that they need to do to grow stronger? The ... injustice's they have commited? Even the people who give you orders? I think you have, but you have chosen to simply ignore it. Haha, what pathetic 'justice'."

Kaden laughed. Nelsen was surprisingly naive or had indeed decided to close his eyes when needed.

"I do what they do", Kaden continued. "I take what I need when opportunity appears. Justice matters not."

Kaden pulsed more mana from his core, while Nelsen was still thinking of his words. With the help of his plume, he finally managed to eject some of the justice mana away that was clinging to him. It still was not all.

After lamenting for a moment the wastefulness of such actions, Kaden had a though. Wasn't vengeance mana kind of... justice? Perhaps twisted and more personal, but still... wasn't vengeance kind of justice?

Kaden concentrated on that desire for vengeance he had. He usually hid it and he only used it through Vengeance. He released that mana into his normal mana circulation. Passingly he thought, perhaps if he could hide the mana better, he could be making spells and techniques for it. What he was doing was simple release, to enrich his normal mana with it.

To Kaden's senses, the justice mana that was still stuck on him, started moving like fire in a wind. Then be flung away from his body.

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It was still something Kaden wasn't very used to doing and was very inefficient, but it worked with the rest of his mana.

As if Nelsen's fanciful ideas of so called justice was anything against Kaden's twisted rage. Vengeance was his justice.

"Indeed, your justice is merely a fanciful construct based on your opinions of 'right'", Kaden said to Nelsen.

He didn't need to mention that it still took quite effort to get rid of that 'fanciful construct'. At least he had a working tool against it. It took a lot of mana from his core, empowered by his precious plume and vengeance mana mixed in to peel it off. Even Nelsen had seemed surprised how well it was working against him. It was probably due to all the plans and ideas he had, some of which he already revealed to Nelsen earlier. Kaden had full intent to act on those plans eventually.

Kaden decided he would just have to deal with the annoying justice mana. There were all sorts of mana around, if you knew how to get them. Justice was even a relatively common one. He had to be able to deal with it or he would likely suffer due to it later, even if he was able to defeat Nelsen now.

Since he was already using the mana the way he was, Kaden decided to keep going. It would likely work against Nelsen in his current state and perhaps even give advantage.

Kaden leaped at Nelsen.

This time the annoying mana was not able to get to Kaden. It was taking quite a bit of strength to keep up the protection, but it was worth it.

Kaden was able to truly fight Nelsen and not be hampered by the constant and growing burn from the justice mana. It probably took some effort for Nelsen to use it too. Despite such assumptions, Kaden did not wish to extend the fight unneccessarily. He started to attack quicker with greater ferocity than previously and ignoring his defenses. It was time to trust in attacking being the best defense.

This was the beastial nature that Kaden had. Wounds that were not fatal could be ignored. Only thing that mattered was that you were the one alive at the end.

Blasts and explosions continued. The woods were being torn apart as Kaden and Nelsen continued fighting, neither willing to yield.

Eventually one side, that being Kaden, finally reached an advantage. Core contained vast amount of mana to fuel his attacks where as Nelsen could not do so. Noticing this, Nelsen threw away whatever pretenses he might have still had. Not that Kaden was in a good shape. He was bleeding all over and his clothes torn apart, but all those were acceptable wounds.

"Damn you!" Nelsen shouted at Kaden while swinging his sword. "If not me, then someone will eventually put you down! Someone will notice! Someone must notice!"

"No one will care!" Kaden shouted back. "Erral was a criminal as far as anyone cares. You disapear after supposedly knowing about him and not helping the investigation! Thats is all anyone thinks when you are gone! You will be branded a heretic, if not outright cultist! A criminal!"

Around at this time Kaden managed to strike deeply at Nelsen with Vengeance. While Nelsen was not one of the targets of his vengeance and not able to tear at Nelsen's soul, Vengeance would still consume his mana. There was also the special kind of damage Vengeance left behind.

With this Nelsen faltered for a moment and allowed Kaden to strike again and again. Nelsen was only able to put up defenses to prevent instant defeat, but it was only pushing back the innevitable. Kaden was like a beast that had smelled blood and continued with even greater fury.

Eventually Nelsen was no longer able to continue and he fell on the ground. Kaden was soon on him and stabbed Nelsen with Vengeance.

Nelsen refused to scream even as flesh around the wound glowed with the sickly green light as the blade devoured his mana.

"It was your fault", Kaden whispered to Nelsen as he twisted the blade. "It was you who brought me in. You gave me the oportunity to grow so quickly." Kaden twisted the blade again. "It was your fault. Once I do what I do, perhaps gods will punish your soul in afterlife for it. After living a devout life and all the worship. They don't care about you. Maybe they will toss you in the abyss to get such a failure out of their sight!"

Kaden sneered at Nelsen as he tormented him. In a reply, Nelsen spat at Kaden's face who then completely disregarded it. Instead he crushed Nelsen's arm that was trying to lift the sword again.

"You will burn in hell!" Nelsen managed to mumble through all the torment. "You will eventually die and gods will punish you."

This was something Kaden was well aware of. He didn't need to answer to Nelsen anything. In fact, Kaden had looked up some obscure spells that the could use to destroy himself completely, soul and all. If he was to perish, he would not go to afterlife to be punished by gods. They had no right to do so! Kaden felt he didn't belong to any of them. He would rather erase his existence than be toyed with by beings he detested.

Not that he had ever found anything too useful. It seemed church didn't like such spells. Souls were supposed to go to afterlife. That was domain of gods. To deprive gods something that belonged to them would make priests frown.

Kaden had orignally had this idea when he watched Vengeance slowly destroy Serin's soul. That being the only method he knew. It wasn't something he would use.

While Kaden was slightly distracted, Nelsen acted, despite being basically crippled. Nelsen started to gather mana.

Kaden immediately reacted. This was pretty familiar. Nelsen was probably going to try self destructing.

"Oh no you don't!" Kaden said and inteded to finish off Nelsen before he could blow up. He had had his share of exploding enemies.

Nelsen's face twisted in rage as he started glowing and Kaden was basically tearing him apart and continuing to stab again and again with Vengeance.

"Pathetic attempt", Kaden muttered to himself as Nelsen finally stopped glowing and was dead. There was too little time to self destruct. "Oh well, he probably tried because, it was the last chance he had."

It was done. In many ways, Kaden had now severed connections to anyone who might know too much about him. It would take a quite a big moves, until anyone would truly notice him again. The nobles, who Kaden suspected to be behind Nelsen's last act, did not seem to act directly. If he stayed out of their sight, they too would not be a problem.

Exhaustion suddenly washed over Kaden. He had fought with all fury he could muster and done so against an opponent he could barely contend with. His human type cultivation was even lower than Nelsen and he was only able to have equal match because he had his beast side to add in.

Kaden's body was a mess. He was bleeding all over and some of the gashes, while not life threatening, were quite deep. He needed to heal.

In his condition there was no way he could Devour whatever was left from Weils. Nelsen himself had to do. It would also help him get rid of the body. Despite having been Nelsen's underling for quite a while, Kaden felt no sentimentality. Right there and then Nelsen was merely slab of meat, food to be consumed.

"I'll Devour enough to deal with larger wounds and then find a place to rest and heal", Kaden decided. He didn't want to linger. With the fight over, someone might come see what had occured.

Kaden started Devouring Nelsen. As usual Kaden felt the rush of energy.

Then his eyes widened.

"ARGGGHHHHH!", Kaden screamed as burning pain spread everywhere.