Two Weeks later…
Present Day
1
"Wake up! Sir!" Someone is calling Kilian and then he feels a blow to his arm, jolting him awake.
"Oh right it's you," He rubbed his eyes, seeing Fredrich with half of his face covered by a skull mask, "Is it done?"
Fredrich nodded, “Yeah, don’t want you to miss it.” He then opened his hand, revealing black powder.
“This material,” Killian muttered. “I’m just baffled that we were even able to gain access to this forbidden mineral days ago.”
“It came at a cost, didn’t it? Of what happened out there today. At least you survived.”
Kilian looked up, “Sure but I have another blow,” he said, pointing to his right temple as Fredrich turned.
"You really looked shit compared to the last visit,” Fredrich said, paying close attention to Kilian’s temple, now a line inhabited by illuminating blue light. “Yeah, and now the whole Jinsu is at war thanks to that." Fredrich continued before returning to the crafting table.
Kilian rubbed his fingers across each other as the dark powdery substance overwhelmed his skin. His skin tingles at first exposure and then subsides. It was sharp but unfazed.
||Harmless||
Hmm. Thanks? Kilian trying to grasp his new visuals. So far it’s currently helping him. He tried to wave with his other hand through the words only effortlessly blending through. The word disappears as he internally desires for it to disappear. He caught it seconds later. Eventually, he realizes it’s controlled by his brain.
“Good feeling of hurt isn’t it?” Fredrich asked, muffledly.
“Yeah, better than what happened to Jinsu… I just can’t believe it. All those potential casualties are high.” Kilian, scratching his beard, stood up from the sofa. He walked up to the masked man, witnessing the finished product about to be released.
||Downloading Temperature statistics…||
||Complete…||
More and more phrases pop up in his visuals disturbing him. Can you just not make a goddamn mess? He grew internally irritated. The pop-up automatically moves to the bottom corner, returning his visual distance. Returning focus to the product, he pays attention to Fredrich.
Fredrich grabbed the sword out from the barrel next to the side of the crafting table. Sounds of boiling liquid bubbling as the blade leaves. Kilian stood there with his eyes focused on the barrel. He hadn’t asked about the contents in that barrel, and everywhere around him was currently dark except the small area surrounding the scene, dim but with enough visibility thanks to the fireplace behind the table.
SISS.
Steam bursts from the barrel once the blade's tip leaves the liquid. It’s so hot that the area turned humid in a flash. Kilian, standing behind Fredrich, saw his left hand removing the mask from his jaw. A glimpse of what was beneath the mask revealed an exposed jaw surrounded by darkened scars that spread to other parts of his face and neck. Fredrich then gave a loud whistle.
Breeze swirls around the whole room, annihilating the condensation and setting it at shattering cold temperatures. Kilian glances around the vicinity before the fire blows out from the cold. He then fired one ball back to the fireplace, relighting the room.
||Temperature low: 25 Degrees||
“You’re a Krieger, too?”
“Yes,” Fredrich reinserts his mask and gives a feel of the pure black blade while holding firmly at the sword’s hilt, “It takes considerable qi to even craft and handle this sword you know.” He turned to Kilian, lifting the blade right towards his face.
“Thank you, Fredrich.” Kilian gave a feel for the sword. “Woah. It’s heavier.”
“This mineral is the most dense of all in Longhun.”
Kilian articulates his arms and swirls gently followed by an echoing sound. “Is this one of its characteristics?” He still hears the echo ringing.
“Yea. It might take work to be stealthy.”
“Well, thanks for this. Hong An owes you for your service.” Kilian draws his new sword into the new sheath.
“Oh yeah, I was originally gonna mention you were in deep sleep when I was crafting this masterpiece. You even talked in your sleep. Are you sure you are good?”
“It was just a reliving dream.”
“Can’t harm anymore being a dream.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s something I want to relive again,” Kilian said as flashes of the dream poured into his mind. It’s all in the past. Time to let go. He thought.
“Then I won’t ask further. Back on topic. You feel confident with the new Sword?”
Kilian nodded in approval as he took a step back, withdrew his sword, and then gave a spark of his qi towards the blade. The blade ignited in a flash much to his surprise. “The reaction time is really fast….Impressive.” He muttered before dissipating the flames and inserting the sword back into his sheath.
“So you ready to get back out there?”
“Definitely, I need to blow off some steam from this nap,” Kilian shook hands with Fredrich before departing, “You are welcome to rejoin the battlefield again.”
“Will see. Good luck.”
Kilian headed up the staircase towards the door. A light appeared through the bottom crease. He opened the door and walked out of the lobby filled with shelves containing a stock of weapons and an armory containing a price tag. He sprinted out of the lobby and arrived back outside. He looked around the Ground Zero Jinsu, rubble in the vicinity and trails of smoke flowing through the dense humid air. He cleared his mind by slapping his head once fully waking himself up from a long dream.
||Location: Jinsu||
So, I relived through all of that again. Well, that time was peaceful.
He looked around again until he could pinpoint his current location. He noticed he was right by the coastal shore. Standing in front of the lobby, he turned around and saw the store sign. Right, Fredrich's Blacksmith Center.
He then headed to his right, leading back to the main street, and turned left, heading back North. As Kilian walked, he observed the ruins, and the bodies lay scattered across the pavement. He recognized the BBQ restaurant he went to, now reduced to ashes. He stopped and went to the rubble. He stood for a while, staring at ground zero, and noticed a red hardcover poking through the dirt.
He pulls it out, swipes off the debris, and opens it. His eyes grew thin as he scrolled through the pages before closing the booklet. Thank God this is still intact. He was internally relieved as he loved the restaurant’s food on the first visit. He untied the belt of his robe, placed the menu inside, and re-tightened it.
Kilian returned to the main street and headed back to the main street for a while before turning right, heading back to Hong An’s Palace which from afar is intact. Dodging the sharp debris scattered across the path, he finally made it back to the palace gates. He then leaped over the walls arriving back to the front lot.
He was greeted by fellow Hong An’s assassins who stood in position surrounding him. He saluted the assassins and they all dispersed except one, who had some information to give. Two scrolls in his grip and give one by one. The Assassin told Kilian to read it on the spot, so Kilian opened the first scroll, revealing a long letter.
“Have you read this?”
“No, sir. Our mailman gave us the scrolls with no extra notes.”
Kilian continues to read the scroll.
The Assassin took one step back when he felt heavy pressure around Kilian. He then tore the scroll in half and disintegrated the scroll.
“Bastards!” Kilian was furious, demanding the second scroll. The assassin tossed the second scroll and Kilian opened it. He took a deep breath before closing the second scroll. “Sorry, anything else you want to tell me?”
“Nothing major.”
“You’re dismissed.”
The Assassin departed from his sight and Kilian walked into the palace and was met by a gathering. A vast amount of people are here occupying all the low tables. He sees Huo walking towards him as he looks around the throne hall.
“Where the hell have you been?!” Huo yelled.
“I was getting a new sword, remember I thought I told all of you.”
“You took too long when all these survivors gathered at the hall!” She said furiously.
Well, that was quick as he thought and he fathomed how many survived the raid of Jinsu. It wasn’t him that directed them here so it can be either Huo, Selina, or somebody else. He gave a count of the empty seats and figured the number of refugees at thirty-nine while eleven seats were vacant.
Kilian switched topics before handing Huo the second scroll, “We have a problem.”
Her eyebrows clenched, “Out of all days and it has to be now,” she muttered. “For Christ's sake.”
“If they are in Longhun, that could mean an uncertain amount of days before they come back. They could be raided if they try to come through to the city’s usual entrance at the northern border.” Kilian placed his hand on his forehead before looking away from Huo briefly, looking at the thirty-nine refugees.
“It will take an effort to push the Four away from Jinsu. They have connections with the higher-ups of Longhun. We don’t.”
“In that case, we could-” Kilian stopped.
“What?” Huo looked at him before turning around.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Those three, the older lady looking down while the red-haired guy and lady are comforting her. They look like the ones down at the BBQ near the coast.” Kilian pointed.
Coincidentally the red-haired guy stared into space momentarily when he saw Kilian pointing at them. He immediately leaned towards the other two’s ears and then they looked at Kilian. The red-haired lady pointed back, stood up, and vibrantly ran to him.
“No way. You were at our eatery a few weeks ago with Klaus’s family. What are you doing here?” She firmly gripped Kilian’s shoulders.
Sighs. Well, I guess all of them don’t know my role here. He thought while giving the eyes of Huo before looking back at the red-haired lady. "Well, I'm the head of The Hong An."
"I'll be damned." She excitedly heads back to tell the older lady while Kilian walks inside and closes the entrance door.
He was then greeted by the other two as he walked to them.
"You can't possibly be Kilian. Not one of the five groups could care about the people of Jinsu." The Red-haired guy said.
"Well, you will be disappointed, Lang," Kilian grins while firmly shaking his hand tightly when a pop sound comes from Lang’s knuckles.
He backed off from his word once he recognized Kilian’s voice. Kilian let go of his tight grip, and Lang took a step back.
"Please excuse my comment," Lang said with his head down.
"The beard ticked you off, didn't it?"
“Embarrassingly, yes.” He reluctantly nodded.
Kilian almost forgot but he opened his robe and pulled out the hardcover menu.
“That’s our menu?!” The older lady blurted, dismissing her depressed face from sight.
“I found it in the rubble as I was heading back. Keep it sacred. Your food is exquisite for Jinsu.”
That menu might have saved the three tremendously from shutting down the drain. Even surprisingly Kilian where the older lady dropped the depressed facade.
"Wow, feeling better already?"
"I thought I lost everything from the rubble. That menu is quick to recover. Thank you."
"Glad to be. Anyway, chat later. I must go now."
He and Huo sprinted away from the throne hall into the main garden hallway. As they sprinted towards Kilian’s office, Kilian told Huo of the first scroll. Huo sighed as she didn't expect anything positive to come. Eventually, the two reached the door and the two gave a nod before pushing inwards, walking in to be met by the whole separate crowd. Theo and Roland are also present with the latter holding a folder loaded with papers by his desk. The whole first floor of his residence has been rearranged to fit all present for the conference. They all stood when Kilian entered.
“Please, sit,” He gestured to everyone, prompting them to sit down before walking to his desk. Huo pulled the chair and sat in front of his desk and Theo handed him the folder. He looked around, making sure everyone was present. “Where’s Selina?”
“She is assisting some of the refugees in her clinic. She will have to participate in this conference late,” Huo responded and opened her notebook, “We can start now.”
2
Two Hours Later.
The conference just finished reviewing every record that occurred during the raid of Jinsu. Unfortunately, at least eighty percent of Jinsu was destroyed and the residents disintegrated. Leaving only The Hong An Palace and the four still standing.
“So how much time can you approximate their arrival?” Kilian pointed at Jinsu’s Northern Border at the board.
Roland and Huo were reading the second scroll before giving their answers.
“Around five days,” Huo said.
“No, a week.”
“I can’t say so. Northern parts of Longhun beyond Jinsu, have more advanced technology capabilities than we do. So it’s a safe bet the transportation is more significant than ours.”
Theo countered by mentioning the only way to get in is either by horseback or foot on a miles stretch of narrow pathway without any civilization to reach the gates. Can take hours if committed for one day.
“Then we focus on those two scenarios. Keep the warning on the fifth day and if nothing happens we focus on the seventh day.” Kilian grabs chalk and draws a circle surrounding the path while pointing arrows at the two groups, outside of the circumference, who control the North of Jinsu.
“The Jianke sect and Lang Clan. They have the majority of the North.”
“Should we attack them before the arrival?” Theo asked.
“Yes but waiting for a misjudgement on the four on that first scroll I talked about…If not then it’s a declaration of war.”
Huo and Theo sat down as they stared into the filled bulletin board.
“Our priority is to get them here safely and without trouble, but we don’t have time to train all our refugees counting the ones on their own will,” Kilian said.
As far as concerns moving forward, everyone in the room already knows Kilian’s unknown resurrection and they were unaware that Kilian’s body was originally Klaus’s as the facial structures and attributes are differentiable between the two. Theo is curious for a while whether Kilian has connections with Klaus’s siblings. Kilian denied skimming it down to more of a role model and a person they closely trust.
Everyone in the room proposed the idea of bringing them into their ranks if they insisted. Maybe it’s time for them to discover their capabilities to become a Krieger. Kilian theorizes maybe if Klaus was still alive the siblings would follow him into the path too.
“You look a little pale, you ok?” Theo asked, noticing Kilian’s sweat dripping from his forehead. His face is notably cranky around the oculars. “Hold on, is that blood on your neck?”
Kilian’s eyes widen and feel his neck. A splat sound as his fingers touched the right side of his neck. “Oh.” He murmured before grabbing a napkin and wiping remnants of blood off his neck. He grew a little concerned as he showed everybody his blood tainted with bluish liquid that was not blood.
||Unidentified Ailment inflicted||
Shit. When did that happen? He felt fazed out but kept himself awake.
Huo immediately took the napkin and passed it to Selina. She then went full physician and began asking various questions as being on a doctor's visit. She told Kilian to sit down on the couch while she pulled a chair in front of him.
“Do you feel anything abnormal?” She asked while summoning green magic from her left hand.
“Little heavy. One hour nap for the past two weeks and probably got inflicted with something,” He said, looking at Huo before turning back directly at Selina. “Sorry.”
She sighed, “I seriously can't, with you sometimes! Learn to hold back for once,” She blurted.
Continuing with the questions, Selina then directed her green magic on her left hand towards its fingers and poked it into Kilian’s chest, sending it into his sternum. Once it all entered and dissipated from her fingers, Selina palms his chest and applies phantom pressures, mimicking a resuscitation.
||Ailment identified: Poison||
||Treatment in session||
Kilian clenched his jaws, prompting Roland and Theo to jump up from the couch. Kilian jerked his hand up signaling the two to stop, “Don’t! Let her do it, you guys sit down.” Green flames emit from his shoulders and his hair is all pointed up with green outlines on each of the strands.
“Was I poisoned?” He asked and saw Selina’s eyes closed as if she was concentrating.
“You’ve been poisoned. This should neglect the poison and let your body adapt to it. You’ll get used to it as it goes.” She said slowly.
Another pop-up appeared when he looked down.
||Discovered: Status Ailment Recovery +10%||
Selina slaps his face, “Don’t look down, it’s gonna hamper the recovery.”
He blankly stared at her again, “Ouch!”
Kilian looked up at Huo, “Not funny.”
Huo holding her right index finger in pain. “I can’t help it.”
Kilian grins at her dismay, realizing she tried touching his hair, ignoring the fact it's probably extremely hot. “Are you sure you are good?” He mockingly asked her.
“Oh please.” she summoned water towards her fingers, causing a whole mess through the floors.
“Huo!” Theo yelled.
Ironically that took Kilian’s mind off the shame and he just held his laughter and let his mind do the work and watch the two. Selina then opens her eyes and lets go of her palm. Wait, that's it? Kilian noticed the pressure was gone and he turned back to Selina.
||Treatment Completed||
The notification received confirms his recovery, and then displays his overall info:
|| Optical Learning Reader System V 1.0
Health: Stable
Stamina: Unpredictable
Strength: Level 1
Defense: Level 1
Intelligence: Level 2
Qi: Level 10 ||
Optical Learning Reader System? Intriguing. Unpredictable? On point but foul. The overall info moved to the bottom right corner before disappearing. He glances at Selina with a popup appearing right alongside her.
“It’s complete. It gets faster as more of the healing green flames enter your body.” She stood up from the scene and showed the mirror to Kilian’s face.
“You’re not wrong,” He said, feeling his neck and moving his shoulders. Seeing himself was the line on his forehead that Fredrich noticed. It reached near to the edge of the sclera on his right eye. Selina handed a bottle of water, and Kilian chugged it at ease without leaving a drop in the bottle. “Thanks for your help.”
“I will never understand how you always do that with water.”
“Sometimes you need a chug,” Kilian said, before noticing two lines on her, each heading to its corresponding orbital cavity. Like himself, but instead, it’s both of her eyes illuminating green. “Selina,” he called her.
He told her to kneel like earlier and feel the lines on her face. “What’s the matter?”
Her overall info popped up to his right:
|| Optical Learning Reader System V 1.0
Health: Stable
Stamina: Stable
Strength: Level 1
Defense: Level 2
Intelligence: Level 2
Qi: Level 7
||Name: Selina ??//HT: 6’2”// WT: 145 lbs//Age: 28// OLRS: Y||
Explains everything. No one knows her last name at all. Kilian, letting go, seems to comprehend how this new bothersome system works. He switches to his overall information:
||Name: Kilian ??// HT: 6’1"//WT: 186 lbs//Age 25//OLRS: Y ||
Alright alright. I see now. He turns off the info box.
“Did you have any symptoms related to this,” Kilian asked her, pointing at the lines.
“Phew, I thought I was the only one. Thought I was hallucinating,” Selina replied.
Roland raised his hand, declaring he also got the lines. For his case was right at the center of his forehead then traveled down past the bridge of his nose. The bridge acted as a divider as the splits into half ending at both of his nasal sidewalls.
||Name: Roland// HT: 5’9"//WT: 154 lbs//Age 28//OLRS: Y ||
“So blue, green, and now brown. Does anyone have something like we do?” Kilian asked. Straight no’s which even his visuals now recognize as well. Ah, that’s what the ORLS stands for. “Any symptoms for you two? Or any discoveries you find?” He followed up with another question.
“I guess our mental processing is more absorbing than ever before. Nothing seems to change our prior abilities.”
“Who knows? It could bring something more later,” Selina said, doubting it’s only for mental enhancements.
Remembering a couple of hours ago, Kilian was with Roland and Selina after minutes of constant bombings around Jinsu, digging for survivors. Assumingly, a surprise attack from a cloaked individual blew gray powder in their direction. The winds sent the powder towards their faces, sending the three incapacitated for a few seconds before regaining composure. Followed by a sharp pain as if they got scratched by sharp claws. Which caused the line engravings on their faces. The cloak individual was already gone when Kilian glanced up from the floor. A bunch of transparent pop-ups appear in his visuals as he goes helping up Roland and Selina, ignoring it.
Kilian looks at the wall of his office where a ragged conical hat is hanging on the wall. He walked up towards it. I hope you are out there somewhere and we will meet again someday. He gave his last moments before being comforted by Huo. “She sacrificed for us.”
“She did. She got where I’m at today,” He muttered.
“For all of us,” Huo added. “Come on! We all got work to do,” She said as she sprinted out to the door with everyone else.
Kilian eventually follows as he leaves the hanging conical hat on the wall.