I was experimenting with my spells in the night when I heard the door open. I saw without even turning around who was at the door but still I turned to face the little vampire as it would be weird to talk while facing the other way.

“Hey there Cel. Couldn’t sleep?”

She nodded once. And stepped inside, closing the door. She seemed slightly nervous. I wonder what it was about. As I was wondering that she walked over and hugged me.

“Warm…” (Cel)

Warm? I… don’t know… was I warm? I believe I shouldn’t exude much temperature unless I will it. But looking at the comfortable Cel I didn’t dare doubt it. So as per requested I became warm. I put my hand on her head and stroked her hair.

“You’re the same after all…” (Cel)

Me? The same as who? Kenos?... Maybe she could find what she looked at in Kenos in me as well. I could not deny it. I inherited a few things from him as well so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say I was him. Only… I was three other people at the same time.

“Cel… I need you to understand that I’m not Kenos anymore…”

“Then… who are you?” (Cel)

My hand stops moving. She caught me by surprise there. When asked who I am I could only say “I am me.” but that didn’t sound right… a name… a name for me… I am… the end of a road of insanity… I honestly didn’t feel like a name for me was necessary. I wasn’t a person. I was an entity. A being. But… I guess I still needed something to call myself.

“I’m just… The End… or End.”

It was even short just how all three of the others liked it. Cel nodded while hugging me. I could tell she was smiling but also seemed a bit sad. Kenos was no longer here after all. Now she couldn’t even call me that as I was called something else.

“But… you’re still him…” (Cel)

“I…”

I… am… Do I need to deny it so strongly? I guess I don’t. She obviously still found what she saw in Kenos in myself as well. So there was no reason to deny it. More importantly. It didn’t matter. I would help her no matter what. Because I love both her and Lily just as much as Kenos did… if not more.

“I guess I might as well be.”

I smile as I start patting her head again. I wonder… was she doing this for herself or for me? Was she reassuring herself that I’m not someone else… or was she reassuring me that she wouldn’t treat me differently even now? I… honestly felt like it was both.

“Do you want to sleep together tonight?”

She nodded. Sigh. Guess that’s it for experimenting tonight. We laid down on the bed and the next time I could move was in the morning when a weird-faced Lily opened the door of my room and saw us laying in the bed. We woke Cel up and went down to get breakfast. I had forgotten how rotten the place we were in was until a couple of people tried to pull Lily away from the table.

Of course they were immediately kicked out of the inn… not by management or anything… not by me either… Lily did it. I didn’t even need to do anything before she kicked one of them in the pride of a man making every other male in the room feel a shudder going down their spine and then kicking both of them out.

Cel and I could only smile awkwardly. Paying the innkeeper an extra silver or two as an apology we stepped out of the inn and started travelling further eastward. It would take only a day or two to reach the border. On the way I inspected the progress both Lily and Cel had already made in terms of abilities.

If I was to evaluate them now. I would evaluate Lily to be around rank A in ability while Cel would be AA and if she learns to use mana manipulation more freely she would skyrocket into S or SS. But for now she could only produce the same effects as her spells had. She wasn’t able to control the forces of nature yet. She wasn’t what this world called an Archmage. That’s what people that could use mana manipulation were apparently called.

Well either way their progress was stunning. A normal person could never progress this quickly in anything. I was sure that Kenos’ instruction played a part but they were obviously talented and dedicated to getting stronger as well.

The first night of our travels I pulled out ingredients from the crimson gem embedded into the fingerless glove on my right hand. It was an unnaturally thin gem that fit onto the glove closely and barely felt weird on the back of my hand.

I made some fried eggs for them and they enjoyed them quite a bit. It was really useful that none of the ingredients in my gem would spoil. I could put in stuff which would normally never be used while travelling like milk.

Cel didn’t request to sleep with me tonight. I think she didn’t want me to spoil her too much. Or maybe she was just embarrassed. Or maybe it was just that last night was enough reassurance for her that I would not leave her side.

I don’t know what was bothering her but it seemed like she was okay now so I didn’t ask. I’m sure she would tell me herself if she felt like it was a good idea. In the morning we traveled again until we reached a river. And on the river a fortified bridge with a huge gate on either side. We would have to be inspected to pass through there so we instead headed north travelling through the field next to the river while keeping it in view. After about an hour I made froze over the river to make a path across it.

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As we passed the border we headed further east. We were aiming for the ocean and that was simply the direction we had to take to get there. We reached a road after another day but decided not to follow it. It was best to avoid civilization in the human countries. The Celestials might still be searching for Lily and Cel after all. Thinking about that I decided to take some precautions and made the two cloaks, enchanted with the words “Evasion” and “Attention”.

To check the effectiveness we decided we would visit a village on the way east at least once. And we found one soon enough. Only… It what we found wasn’t quite something I wanted to see. We had been travelling through a forest a few days after crossing the river when we saw a large amount of smoke rising in the air from the south. It was close so we decided to see what it was even though we all knew what it would probably be. When we got there what we saw was a village covered in fire. What seemed like bandits were running around the streets and raiding the houses. We could hear the screams of the men who were being killed indiscriminately and the women who had it even worse.

The girls had already pulled out their weapons, knowing what would follow. My gentle demeanor had disappeared. My cane was no longer one as it had broken it’s shell and revealed the blade hidden within. My gentle demeanor was nowhere to be seen and I said nothing. As Lily and Cel stepped forwards to intercept the bandits I disappeared from my location and though the village was still around a hundred meters away from me when I did so. The next second around then men’s heads were separated from their necks and blood was dripping from the blade I held.

From there the slaughtered ones were not the villagers but the bandits. The hunters had become the hunted and the tormented screams completely switched owners. A few men were “occupied” with women from the village. Most of them were being handled with the bodies of their family still somewhere they could see.

“Disgusting.”

Unlike most of the words I had spoken ever since I came into being this one was filled neither with warmth nor kindness. It was cold and unrelenting killing intent which spilled over the village like a flood and made every single bandits shake in fear. A few could not handle it and slit their own throats in their maddening dread.

As the bandits all died there was a single second in which nobody in the village could take a breath as I temporarily created a vacuum, putting out the raging fire. Even after the bandits have died I was still burning in rage as I looked back at the destruction caused and lives lost. There were so many people here dead. The corpses of men children and women were all lying across the streets and beneath the collapsed houses. The remaining were either the lucky ones… or the ones who were spared for the pleasure of the aggressors… I guess spared was not quite correct…

Both Lily and Cel could see my rage as they came up to me.

“What now?” Asked Lily as she seemed to be looking at the people that had lost everything today… What now indeed.

“Wait for them to calm down and gather them up for me please. They’ll have to decide what to do now themselves. At most… we could heal them or guide them to a nearby village and hope that they would accept them there.”

Lily nodded. Really. What am I supposed to do right now? In the end I need to get to the elven country. I can’t stay here for who knows how long and help them rebuild their village… I wish I could but I can’t…

It took an hour but the remaining living were gathered up. There were a total of six men and thirteen women. All of them had some kind of injury. Some small. Some big. Some physical. Some mental. One of the less injured men men walked forward and bowed to me.

“Thank you for taking the time to save our village from those bandits. We are forever indebted to you and cannot ask you to do more for us. We will handle the rest.” (Man)

I forced myself to nod to him. As much as I wanted to stay and help I had my own things to take care of. I guess I truly cannot save everyone. Before I left I touched each of the men and women with a healing light. Some of the women tried to struggle but I still did it. I knew they had a trauma but I needed to heal them. I couldn’t let myself leave with them injured just because they were afraid of me. I also gave each of the men a sword. I didn’t make it out of void steel. Only normal steel. Void steel would be more effective true… but it would also be risky for both me and them. If the Celestials found them they could misunderstand them being “accomplices” to Kenos. Accomplices to what? I still didn’t know.

As we walked away from the village I could only grit my teeth and endure. Today I was reminded how disgusting this world could truly be. What I needed now was not the determination to save people. But the determination to leave some to take care of themselves.

“Cel was right. You are still the same.” Lily said while I was trying to keep myself in check. I could only smile wryly as we kept walking to the east. Please let the elvish country be better than this place…