Victor was clear. There was never even a question about it. Anyone could have predicted that Saint Empire would win. Otherwise Kaden would have never tried his current tactic. He would be executed as a traitor or any relevant excuse for hiding and not fighting.

As for the saints, Kaden hoped they would not notice him either. He was not certain, if they would let him live. He was technically an enemy soldier. Though, only one he ever killed was the soldier from Sacronan’s side that had the privilege of being his hiding place cover.

In fact, Kaden detested Saint Empire only slightly less than Sacronan. Only slightly, though. There was a war and war had two sides. Those two monsters had killed his mother and both sides were involved in that. The soldier that almost killed him had killed his father instead.

Kaden had time to think while he had lied down during the battle. If he ever could accomplish it, he would have his vengeance. If put in order, he would deal with Sacronan’s side first, if possible. He was clear that he had no idea how to even begin, but it was good to have goals in life, yes?

Indeed, he would make his vengeance his life’s work! Or at least take along with him as many people he hated as possible. Sadly that was the most likely scenario.

Kaden didn’t feel dismayed. In his mind, if that was as far as he could reach, then fine. Everyone he cared about was already dead. His home destroyed. You could say he was untethered. He could do anything he wanted. Consequences of his actions were the only thing he had to answer to.

He thought of cultivating while waiting, but then he remembered human mana systems involved prayers to gods. No way! He would give not a single prayer to any god. They didn’t care about him so he wouldn’t care about them. Makes sense!

Still, he had to grow stronger somehow.

“I will likely explode later, if I use chaotic mana”. Kaden thought for a moment. If he wanted to disregard the gods, he would be able to absorb only chaotic mana. Humans couldn’t really progress far on the path that beasts followed. Even they didn’t absorb purely chaotic mana and got lot from things they ate. Other path would be to find mana herbs and absorb pure mana essence from them. There was no way he would be able to find that many herbs.

“Fine, I’ll just absorb chaotic mana”, he finally decided. “I’m not able to use any precision requiring skills so the instability doesn’t matter. I’ll explode later, but that shouldn’t happen any time soon. Perhaps at Channel Opening. If I explode at good spot, I might even be able drag along anyone around me, hehe. I need time. Maybe I can resolve that problem somehow.”

Chaotic mana was truly worth its name. It bounced around and was difficult to control. The mana systems were not even designed to be used in way Kaden was, so it probably increased the difficulty too. It hurt to drag that kind of mana in your body. As Kaden inspected the mana, he noticed it seemed to pulsate and change in seemingly unpredictable ways as it came to contact with other mana.

Eventually it settled down, but there was slight multicolored tinge within Kaden’s previously pure mana. Such mana was not even useful for much more than strenghtening body. In fact, too much. If he didn’t explode, he might easily tear his own body apart at slightest careless movement.

Beasts had stronger bodies and they also condensed the mana into their cores. Humans were incapable of forming cores. The actual process when someone explodes from chaotic mana is when a core would naturally form. Core isn’t good for precision. It will release mana in large chunks. Human body cannot handle that and the uncontrolled mana will then partially leak and partially resonate inside the body. Eventually the core will shatter by overload and that is one huge burst of mana, in other words explosion.

Despite all the consequences, Kaden viewed absorbing the chaotic mana as his only way. He ignored the pain and kept absorbing.

To his surprise, he did not need to do so for long. He quickly felt full, like he had eaten too much. It was extremely uncomfortable. There seemed to be no way to even vomit out this particular food.

Obviously doing thing like absorbing chaotic mana was something Kaden did not know much about. He inspected his body to find the problem. This too was obvious. As soon as he looked he understood the problem. Chaotic mana had everything in it. The good parts, the useless parts and also the harmful parts. Purification would remove all but the good parts. This would expel most of the absorbed mana.

It was like he was absorbing mana worth of several days in one go, yet very little of this mana was actually something that he could use properly. Kaden wasn’t sure what to do, but as time passed, he noticed that much of the mana he had taken in was leaking out of him. He surmised this was the mana that his body could not absorb, as in the useless and harmful type.

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It was slow process, though. In time most would leak out, but if he absorbed more chaotic mana to keep cultivating, he woulf fill up quickly again and the total useful mana available was still small. He wasn’t even aware how the harmful part that did not leak out would affect him.

“This is truly inefficient. I’ll still keep going. All I know is that this path will lead to eventual death, but until that, these side effects should not be fatal. I’ll wait until I can absorb more and repeat the process whenever possible. At least absorbing chaotic mana is extremely fast to do so I can do it whenever I want to.”

Kaden still waited under the bodies a bit longer. He cursed for a moment when he noticed that soldiers were poking corpses. If it didn’t move, they would incinerate it. Clearly they did not want to leave rotting bodies behind. From dead saint soldiers they took something, a small plate, and said a few prayers before burning the corpse.

Burning bodies was the normal funeral method. This was due to historical and religious reasons. Necromancy was a slight problem at times. It wasn’t illegal to study, but some things were… frowned upon. No one wanted their relatives bodies being desecrated. As for the religious side, it was also believed since soul left for god’s realm upon death, they would send the body along.

The bodies being burned also meant that Kaden could not stay hidden under his corpse cover. Nor would he remain unnoticed when they examined the bodies.

As luck would have it, Kaden was not the only one hiding. Previously he had only seen the saints kill those they found alive, but it seemed they did this only to those who were already dying. Another person, seemingly one of the conscripted villagers, an adult man, was dragged out and questioned. Then put in chains and made to go with some other soldiers. They were taking prisoners!

Kaden assumed their fate would not be good, but what had been good in recent times. It meant he could live just a bit longer. At least longer than being set on fire. He decided to surrender without fight once the time came.

Eventually the saint soldiers reached the small pile of corpses. Kaden crawled out with his arms on his arms visible.

“I surrender”, Kaden said calmly as the soldiers noticed him. Since Kaden was so young and unarmed they quickly calmed down. “For the record, I did not kill even a single saint soldier. In fact, I killed that one soldier from Sacronan. I have nothing against your great Holy Saint Empire!” Kaden made some respectful hand signs. “They dragged me from my home against my will and due to them my friends and family are dead. I’m even willing to serve the Great Saint Empire in exchange for my little life.”

He would say anything with a smile, if it increased his chance of survival. It wasn’t even that bad idea. Kaden was perfectly fine serving the saints, if it meant he could live and even possibly get some of their resources. He could kill them later.

“You hearing this kid?” One of the soldiers said.

“Sure, sure, we’ll put him with the rest of them. He even said, he’d serve, hehe”, another soldier replied with a laugh and put on some chains on Kaden.

Kaden did not resist. Just like previously on Sacronan’s side, he still was at mercy of the military. It seems they had some purpose for any captured prisoners. What was it going to be? Perhaps a mine slave? Kaden hoped it would not be that. It would be difficult to escape and death certain.

He was made to follow one of the soldiers. They eventually reached point where rest of the prisoners were and handed over. Oh, how nice, a wagon. Guess having everyone walk around was considered too inefficient.

“Guess the Sacronan’s side was cheapskate”, Kaden thought as the wagons started moving. They had been stuffed full of people. Surprisingly many people survived? Kaden decided it had to be that there were more lucky cowards and intelligent people, such as himself, than he had expected.

Kaden felt a good moment to pull in some more chaotic mana and was done in moments. No one seemed to notice. Cycling mana system usually takes longer time. Also chaotic mana was the natural state of mana. It was more difficult to pay attention to since it was what you usually sensed when nothing was happening.

That or the saints simply did not care. This might have been the case after all. Kaden noticed a few odd looks and he looked back fearlessly with a smile. Perhaps he was just being creepy.

Kaden could not make up his mind, but he would keep absorbing chaotic mana unless someone stopped him.

He had also lost his sword as he surrendered. It was obvious he was not allowed to keep it. He then recalled that he still had those blood bunny teeth hidden in his clothes. Whether they were still useable was unknown. He didn’t know how long the poison remained potent.

After a while Kaden noticed the saints were really betting on their forces in the area. Military seemed to be everpresent. Nothing like the flimsy little fortress and some guards place around it on the Sacronan’s side.

Eventually one guy on the wagon was stupid enough to ask questions. “What are you going to do to us?!”

He got slapped in the face, but the slapper was way stronger. Must have been someone close to Channel Opening. The guy’s face basically exploded with blood. Yet, only the surface. He was quite alive, but missing teeth, crushed nose and probably facial bones cracked.

Kaden was happy that someone paid the price and he would get to hear the answer too. He didn’t like what he heard.

“You will serve the Holy Saint Empire by mining resources for our war effort”, said the soldier and his look made it clear he wouldn’t say anything else.

“Damn”, Kaden thought. What else could it have been? Everything so far had gone wrong so why not this fate too? “I wonder if can get the mine to collapse when I explode.”

There wasn’t much else to do than to plot so thats what Kaden did.