As someone who often braced for the worst rather than indulging in positive thoughts, Kaiser quickly realized just how much he had messed up. As the weight of his mistakes crashed over him, he felt utterly shattered. He didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to face the reality searing into his mind, yet there was no escape. No way to erase the truth that had clawed its way into his heart and cracking his soul.

This wasn’t some nightmare he could wake up from. This was real. Unforgiving. Permanent.

'What did I do wrong?!'

Deep down, he knew the answer was nothing. His conflict with Alfred was nothing more than a cruel misunderstanding. But still—

'Why did they have to be dragged into this?!'

They had no involvement in these, whatsoever. Ariella and Cia are merely vulnerable beings, Blind and too innocent for the cruelty of this world.

However, there's no going back.

His teeth ground together, his jaw clenched so tightly that blood pooled on his tongue. But even the taste of iron did nothing to wake him from this living hell. There was no undoing this, no way to rewind time and make it right.

The damage was done.

And in that silence, the storm inside him raged fiercer than ever—a seething mass of hopelessness, hatred, grief, and regret churning within his chest, devouring him from the inside out. His rage was quiet, but it burned like molten steel, steady and dangerous. The world around him seemed to blur, fading into nothing as his focus narrowed to that inner fire, a fire that threatened to consume all reason, all thought, and leave nothing but pure, fury in its wake.

Brick, oblivious to the maelstrom inside Kai, sighed in mocking apology.

"Sorry, I guess? Just kidding. Thanks to that, I quickly got an excuse to beat you to a pulp, how convenient..." His mocking grin faded into a serious expression of a readied combatant. "In any case, enough blabbering and draw your sword..."

His voice trailed off, words dying on his lips as his eyes locked onto Kai's face, bathed in the dim glow of the lantern on the floor. Oddly enough, the rookie's expression was strangely empty, devoid of any hint of emotion. Yet somehow, that blankness conveyed more than any scream of rage ever could. Especially his eyes staring straight at him, those black, hollow eyes—bored into Brick’s soul, like endless voids that seemed to swallow the light. Unmoving an eerily unblinking. The darkness in them wasn't just an absence of color; it was a presence, an unnatural glow that seemed to pulse from within, an aura that defied logic and made Brick’s skin crawl.

Then, a single tear traced down Kai’s cheek. But Brick payed it no mind, because was he imagining it? Or did those lightless ires seem to radiate an eerie, dark glow?

And for the first time in a long while, Brick felt it - fear. A primal, bone-deep dread that made him feel like prey in the presence of a beast.

'...What are you?'

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Before the thought could even finish, Kaiser suddenly vanished from his sight. Followed by his instincts screaming in alarm, leaving him little time to react. Fortunately, his sword is already out and years of honed reflexes took over, raising his cutlass just in time to meet an attack he couldn't see but could feel. However, that force was like a battering ram that sent a shockwave up his arm. Steel clashed with steel, producing a deafening ringing explosion of sound. And the next thing he knew, his footing gave way under the sheer power of the blow. Throwing him sideways, smashing through the wall of the house like it was nothing.

Dust and splinters rained down around him as he hit the ground, his ears still ringing in that instant clash. He quickly forced himself up, eyes with disbelief as he staggered to his feet. His hands were trembling, his cutlass vibrating with the impact still echoing through the blade. His pulse pounded in his ears, every instinct screaming that whatever he was facing wasn't human anymore—it was a monster, a predator, something far more lethal than the quiet rookie he knew and resented.

With his cutlass raised once more, Brick waited, breath held in dreadful anticipation, eyes darting around, expecting the beast to strike again. But as seconds stretched into an eternity, nothing assaulted him. Just the silence of the night, broken only by the ragged sound of his own breathing. Finally, when his intuition died down, Brick dared to step out of the wreckage of the wall, heart still hammering.

Kaiser was gone, nowhere to be seen.

He gazed in the distance direction of the active area.

"Boss...I don't think that's a mere descendant." Brick muttered, a tremor in his voice he couldn’t hide.

In the darkness of night, with only the occasional weak illumination from the dim moon. The abandoned village district lay in deep shadows, its deserted houses standing like silent sentinels. Through this eerie landscape, a lone figure darted, moving like a shadow itself. He slipped through windows and doors, emerging into hidden alleys before pressing forward. The obstacles seemed insignificant as he navigated effortlessly toward his destination, unstoppable and determined.

Kaiser's eyes flickered rapidly, scanning the path ahead, his body moving with a fluid grace, like a cat gliding through the darkness. His movements were swift and precise, his agility beyond what he ever thought possible for a human being. Yet, despite the precision and speed of his actions, there was no room in his mind for admiration, for his mind was consumed by fury, while balancing with rationality.

Amidst all this, one realization did cut through the fog of his fury.

Thinking back to Zara, the wild, psychopathic lady with ears of a wolf and gleaming, crimson eyes. Possessing beastial strength—the kind that could face a tide of bandits and even take on their seasoned leader.

The monster he formed a Sacred Bond with that's supposed to make his physical capabilities match hers. Still, Kaiser had always felt lacking, inferior. Which he justified to his insufficient familiarity with his own beast-like body, and unrefined skills. Incomparable to Zara's feral yet graceful maneuvering.

His not entirely wrong, though. Because he just found out a trick she's been using to exert her beastial abilities potential on the next level. It had a condition—a requirement that he rarely met: rage. A deep, unbridled emotion that could make one lose themselves, making him into something savage, a beast driven to destruction.

Since birth, Kai rarely felt Intense emotions, more so when he lost his parents at a young age, dulling his heart further. The difficult life he lived also played a part, where crying won't solve any of his problems. So, he steeled himself, only then could he somehow live peacefully. Making that requirements quite hard to achieve.

But tonight was different... He can't stand the thought of the ones he cared for be harmed because unlike him, they have done nothing to deserve such cruelty. Fortunately, a glimmer of hope remain.

That hoped restrained the uncontrollable rage running rampant within him. Otherwise, Brick would be dead by now.

Despite his fury, Kaiser’s mind remained focused on one singular goal: reach the inn, reach Ariella and Cia, if they were still there... if there was still hope. A flash of clarity cut through his anger—Brick wasn't worth his time. Killing him would delay his true objective. So he pressed on, taking the fastest urban route he could instead of the clear road, his heart a raging fire driving him forward.

As he moved, his body surged with newfound intensity. Muscles brimming with bestial strength, he leaped from the second-story window of a house, only to sense danger mid-air. An arrow shot toward him, and he twisted, avoiding it with a reflex that seemed almost supernatural. His senses had sharpened to the point where he could perceive what's around him without needing to look.

He landed gracefully on a balcony, then darted into the house, only to immediately be met another trap. The scent of iron reached his nose, allowing him to identify and reacted instinctively, leaping over the floor trap without slowing his speed.

Just as he passed the doorway, his sharp eyes caught sight of another trap— its nearly invisible string stretched across the frame. Time seemed to slow down in his vision, the world becoming clearer, the darkness itself unable to hide the threat from his sight. He ducked through effortlessly, not losing momentum.

By then, a sharp whistle pierced the night. Probably blown by the archer who fired at him earlier. It was a call to arms, and even from a distance, Kaiser's ears picked up the sound with startling clarity. He could already hear the rustling of movement as the nearby hunters began to close in, alerted by the signal. Which is unavoidable, considering the quality of the Hunters dispatched in search for the monster loitering around.

Kaiser took a deep breath of cold air, his eyes gleaming with a inexplicable ghastly, dark glow akin to Zara's crimson ires.