"Father, why do people always bow down to me or praise me no matter where I am or what I do?"

"That is because you are my son, therefore, you are superior to them Cain, never forget that."

"Hehe, I guess that makes sense, you are the greatest in the world after all!"

"That's right, and you are the second greatest."

This dialogue was a long-time recurring memory, and a steady reminder to myself to who I was. I drift

through the space of time unready to confront the trial that lied ahead of me. Wishing that I would just die right here and now.

Suddenly my head begins to hurts, my sides begin to ache. I really don't want to open my eyes. I've done some pretty bad stuff, got a lot of people to hate me. If I open my eyes, I'm going to have to finally face all that hatred head on.

Just let me elude it a little bit longer...

"He's awake." I feel a strong blow to my cheek, my head whips back from the force leaving my ears ringing.

"Rainel, please do not unnecessarily harm him."

"I'll try my best, but if even makes the slightest indication that he's going to try something, I'll kill him immediately."

That voice... If I recall correctly, that was Princess Yesenia's voice. I look up and see a young woman, maybe late teens to early adulthood. Long flowing blond hair, pure slender fingers indicative of someone who never had to do any form of physical labor, an almost picture perfect representation of a royal.

I feel a cold steel press on the back of my neck.

"Don't try anything stupid, or your head comes off." A man whispers into my ear.

I gradually take in my situation, I was in a cell, a knight named Rainel was behind me holding a blade to the my neck. My arms and feet were chained up tight, and Yesenia was behind a see through wall, most likely to protect her if I suddenly decide to use my powers.

"Before we start, what's your name?" Yesenia spoke.

My thoughts drift back to the time Hanafin said that he didn't want to learn my name unless I swore to fight for Lyster, and I happened to agree with him.

"I won't tell you guys until I've made my decision."

"I see..." Yesenia walks out from behind the shield.

"Princess, it's dangerous! This man!"

"Rainel cover your ears for a bit will you I'll let you know when to stop."

“But—“ Rainel then hesitates before nodding and stuffing his ears.

"You are seriously such a dense person, I could easily kill you right now." I said. This naivety was unheard of even by royalty standards.

"Why would you kill me when you've already saved my life once?"

"What are you talking about? I never did anything like that."

"Yes you did, you pulled back your finger when I got too close to you don't you remember? Even when you told me that you would kill me if I got too close".

"That was... How does that count? I was the one who was going to kill you."

"And you decided to spare my life." She stated matter of factly.

“I could always change my mind.” I said tensely.

“I know. But I trust you.” She said, cutting through all my responses with brutal honesty.

“Fool…” I hold my head down low, unsure of how further to respond.

"Let me ask you this again, what's your name? You don't need to tell us specifically all the princes, the knights, everyone, you can just tell me."

"How is that any different from telling you outright?"

"I made Rainel cover his ears right? You don't need to join our side, but at the very least let me join your side."

"I... I... I hate you." I was stammering my words at this point, clawing at something to say.

"Then I apologize, and I ask for you to forgive me."

"Why, why, why are you asking for forgiveness?”

"That's because people hate each other for something the other person has done right?"

"That's not-" The words get caught in my throat. I hate her because she's a royal, but... for some reason that just didn't feel fair anymore.

"Why don't you hate me? I've hurt you and angered many people at this castle, you deserve to hate me."

"I've forgiven you a long time ago, plus I'm fine now right? That's all in the past, right now, I just want to get to know you more. So this will be the last time I ask you, please tell me your name."

A long silence ensues. Honestly, the way she acts just isn't human, that unwavering trust and honesty is going to get her killed one day.

"My name is Cain."

Yesenia nods her head and smiles. "Hi Cain."

She then makes a motion with her hands telling Rainel to stop covering his ears.

"Now, with that out of the way, I think I understand the situation. You've been running around the city alone in order to make a reasonable decision to which side you're going to join the war on right?"

"Yes, and I'm sorry to tell you this but I'm getting more and more convinced that joining your side is the wrong choice."

"I see, Crux told me that you promised to meet up with him some time later what happened to that?"

"Because the original reason for the war starting no longer matters to me. If I join sides with Oliviand now, the war will end sooner, and fewer will die.“ I said with slight hesitation.

"Those are very noble intentions that I have to respect… But I don’t think joining their side would save more lives.”

"Why? Joining your side would drag out the war, leading to more deaths on both sides.”

“If you join us we can end the war with as few deaths as possible. No need to fight to the bitter end.” She said with a complete lack of self-awareness.

For a moment I stare at her at a loss for words. “naive… How naive can you be?!”

“Well think about it. The problem right now is that we want the war to end, but they don’t want the war to end. Their citizens and rulers haven’t truly experienced what war is like, ours have. If they do, I think we can come to a peace agreement pretty quickly.”

“So? Do you have a specific plan in mind?”

Yesenia’s eyes drift away. “I… Think I do.”

I hear Rainel sigh from behind.

I open my mouth but then close it and stare at her. She quickly shrivels up as the seconds pass by. “I don’t know.” She quickly admits. “I mean, I can’t come up with an idea when I barely know how your Tetsu works or even how Tetsu works in general! You haven’t made it any easier for us either!”

“Why not just surrender?” I change the subject.

"We can’t.” Yesenia immediately replies. “They’ve made it abundantly clear that they will continue to attack and ravage even if we give up. It’s unusually cruel, how they’ve approached this war.”

"So what happens to the people in the cities that get attacked? Do they just all die?"

"No, from our reports, they get incorporated into Oliviand’s societies, rulers, and laws."

"Then just let yourself merge with Oliviand, your nation's pride isn't as important as the people's lives."

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"No, those people will lose all their rights as human beings." Rainel suddenly inserts himself into the conversation looking up at Yesenia as if asking her for permission to speak.

Yesenia takes a look at him and respectfully does a small bow to her head, indicating that she was fine with it.

“There’s a fenced off section of Kaldros active right now, twenty thousand Lysterians live there, old residents, before the attack. Used to be a lot more. Every city that’s been lost has had this happen to the citizens. They called us the lifeless.”

Rainel leans in closer. “Let me tell you how we were treated. When I was there, one of them got sick, and when you sleep in a room with twenty other people, the sickness is bound to spread. Since every Lysterian doctor had been taken to the battlefield, we couldn’t stop it ourselves. Eighteen people died before any of them were damned enough to bring us a doctor. Later I found out that it was fucking Sage disease! Something we figured out to treat centuries ago! There is no option for peace Tetsudo. If we concede, we concede our status to be treated as humans.” He ends with an aggressive snarl.

“The Oliviand’s are not trying to take just our land, they are trying to take our dignity as well. And if you threaten that, you will die too.”

Rainel closes his eyes and exhales deeply. “That’s all.” He says curtly.

I take in what he said with a long silence, "Yesenia..."

"Yes." She said with a weary tone knowing what my next words were going to be.

"How do you plan on ending this war in the best possible way." I ask again.

I was tired. At this point, choosing either side was equally as bad, there was no right option anymore.

"I..." Yesenia hesitates. "I don't know, but I'll think up of something."

I sigh. This girl... "Why are you telling the truth. Even if you can’t think of anything you should be lying to me if you want me on your side."

"Ah, I didn't think of that! Okay pretend you didn't hear what I just said alright?"

"You are a strange one." And a good person, I think. The slightest grin involuntarily forms on my face, but just as quickly it disappears. Someone like this is not fit to take leadership in wartime. She will trust someone that she shouldn’t trust and make everyone pay the price.

"Rainel." Through careful manipulation of the air, I communicate my voice without moving my lips, the sound waves travel in a straight line, only reaching Rainel’s ears and not Yesenia’s.

Rainel takes notice as I could feel a shift in his body.

"In twenty seconds, I'm going to attack Yesenia-"

Suddenly my shoulder screams as a monstrous grip strength threatens to break my collarbone.

"Stop! Stop! Don't worry! It's not going to hit her."

The grip relaxes a tiny bit.

"Please take me out the second you see me act, you can kill me if you want, but this girl needs a reality check."

Rainel releases his grip on my shoulder. Good, it looks like he knows what I'm doing.

"Yesenia. I can’t help but feel sorry for you.”

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell you’re a good person, you trust people, and give people the benefit of the doubt, but unfortunately, I’m not."

I open my mouth wide, a strong flame erupts from out of my mouth. Wispy tendrils of fire weave around and fly into Yesenia.

Rainel immediately squeezes down on my throat, however his hand simply made a fist as my neck evaporated into flames. It was the same trick that I had used on Crux.

"Sorry, I lied, but I'm not ready to die just yet." I say as I phase through the chains.

Yesenia is blasted backwards as the Tetsu explodes, hitting her head hard on the wall instantly knocking her unconscious. I deliberately made the flame as cool as I could just so it wouldn't do any real damage to her.

I turn around to see Rainel, still wearing the dull stone-like armor that was practically immune to heat.

"Damn you!" He screamed. I create a condensed pocket of air between us just as he was about to pounce, exploding and blowing both of us away from each other.

I use my phasing ability for the 3rd time to escape through the cell bars. My head begins to spin from the overuse of that ability. Every use of Tetsu is mentally taxing in some way, the information and pattern recall you need to use in a split second puts various amounts of stress on the brain, causing a need to deliver more oxygen to the head, starving the oxygen from other parts of your body.

"Tell the princess when she wakes up that I tried to kill her." I said as I stumbled across the room dizzily. Rainel furiously fumbles for his key to the cell door. Jeez, even with his strength he still has to use a key to get out? What just what are those cell bars made out of?

I slam open the door leading out of the room, turn back, and then blast the door with a intense flame welding the metal from the door into the wall.

I begin sprinting, trying to avoid the use of tetsu for as long as I possibly could... I stop thinking to rest my mind for a tiny bit.

…

Where are Hanafin and Crux?

I kick my feet forward as I begin riding a wind current, rapidly accelerating across the hallway. The same instant I do that the brick wall right besides me explodes as a body covered in full armor charges right through it. The man's fist skims across my back leaving a angry red mark from the friction. I gag as the taste of vomit seeps into my mouth, it's been a while since I've overused my tetsu, and it looks like I'm going to have to use a lot more of it, before I can get out of here.

"That was quite the entrance." I exclaimed to the man in full body armor, who I was assuming was either Crux or Hanafin.

"What did you do to my sister!" The man's roar gave him away to be Hanafin.

A loud clank of metal could be heard from behind, it was only a matter of time before Rainel would break through the door and team up on me.

"I tried to kill her." I respond bluntly.

I blink, Hanafin disappears from my sight. The next instant I see a fist rocketing straight towards my face. I raise my hands making an air pocket to deflect the blow, however the fist suddenly disappears.

A feint? My feet suddenly leave the ground, my mind not quite registering the situation at hand.

As I get carried off into the air I realize I had been kicked at full force directly to the side of my body, without any sort of tetsu blocking the damage. I’m not going to be able to escape for a second time aren’t I?

My body bends in an unnatural angle as my ribs shatter, red fireworks of pain exploded throughout my body, sending me into a shock, unable to register or react to anything except for the weight of the pain. I was physically weak compared to everyone here, I can mitigate the damage if I can react to the blow and use an energy to soften the blow, but when caught off guard like this. My fragile body has to take the full brunt of the force.

I sail through the air and land with a thud on the stone-cold marble flooring, my consciousness threatening to run away from me. I could see it in his body language, Hanafin is going to kill me. I'm going to die. I'm going to die!

My mouth was filling with a combination of vomit and blood, I had long gone past the limits of my tetsu use at this point, and my body. Do I... Do I just give up? This suffering was unlike anything I've ever felt before. Is this really the end? What have I... What have I done since coming to this world? A second slam reverberates through the hall, Rainel creating massive dents in the metal.

Hanafin grabs me by the neck and lifts me off the ground, my body dangles limply, unable to do anything at all.

"Phase through my hand right now." He was testing the limits of my abilities. Of course I couldn't phase through anything at this point anymore.

"So even you have your limits huh?" He says as the third slam comes through almost bending the door in half, one more hit and the door is gone.

"No matter, you've been given too many chances. I've decided that letting your existence will cause more trouble than good."

Hanafin unsheathes his sword and points it towards my face, can I really not do anything anymore? Is this how the world ends for me? Thousands of scenarios play in my head on how I could defeat the person right in front of me, all of them leading to my demise. I struggle in vain against his iron grip. I can only watch helplessly as the blade plunges straight towards my face.

My neck erupts into flames as I drop to the ground, the blade just barely skimming over my head. The miasma of death grips my heart, I had gone well beyond my limits as a human being, a fountain of blood spontaneously starts gushing out of my nose. The vomit turning pure red. I lay on the ground gasping with the blood. I desperately scramble away from Hanafin, he stands still and just stares at me scornfully as I do this.

I then look up at Hanafin and smile, blood leaking down my chin. One more idea I need to try out.

"I win." I boldly declared in a raspy voice, more so in an attempt to convince myself than Hanafin.

Was my body strong enough to handle one more use of tetsu? I didn't know. Nor did I even know if this was going to work. However, this was the only idea I had to break through their heat resistant armor. Another wave of blood began to spew out of my mouth, I take that opportunity to spew blood all over Hanafin's face, more importantly, the minuscule gap that allowed him to see out of the suit of armor.

It was in the back of my head this entire time. When I saw swords erupt from beneath my feet, they were all drizzled in what looks to be fresh blood. I didn't think much of it until my head went through the all scenarios I could employ to defeat Hanafin. They must have been infused with Anku, which means I can try something similar.

It is said that on the brink of death your brain automatically recalls back on all your life experiences in order to find a solution to the impending doom, which is why people report having flashbacks when they believe that they're about to die.

I had infused all the tetsu I could into that blood. Now. All that's left is to turn it into fire. I'm sure there's a flame-resistant glass behind the visor as well. However, there's no way that glass was going to be as strong as the suit of armor Hanafin was wearing. The tetsu, in my body erupts from wind into flame in preparation to burn him from the inside alive, or at least incapacitate him.

"Goodbye." Both of us said at the exact same time as Hanafin begins the second thrust of his sword.

"STOOOOOP!" A shrill voice suddenly rings out.

Both of us instantly stop and turn our heads towards the source of the noise.

It was Yesenia. Rainel had broken down the door and Yesenia had staggered through, blood running down her face.

"Hehe, are you surprised Cain? You held back a little too much you know? I have a bit of anku too.”

I could only watch in shock as she sways her way to our standoff.

"After all that...” My voice begins shuddering. “WHY DO YOU STILL TRUST ME!" I cry out in a hoarse beaten down voice.

She simply inches closer and closer, unflinching. Hanafin lowers his sword as he watches the situation unfold.

"I TRIED TO KILL YOU! I WANT TO KILL YOU!" I scramble away, blubbering an incoherent mess of insults as she approached.

"I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? I'M A BAD PERSON!"

I stop crawling backwards unable to move any further as I feel the warm embrace of hands around my back.

"No, that's not what I think. I think you're a good person."

Ice cold chills run through every crevice of my body. Those were the words I never wanted to hear ever again.

I stood in a sea of flames, blackened corpses strewn around. I stare at my hands in disbelief, shocked at the person who had just taken multiple lives, slowly my mouth curls into a smile.

Laughter erupts from behind as a man walks into the arena and pats my back.

"That's my boy!" My father said.