Kai slowly tilted his head backward.
His gaze drifted up toward the cloudy, dark sky as his mind seemed to have dozed off into a realm of its own.
"I did it..." He muttered under his breath and let out a long, deep sigh.
For the first time in a long while, despite having won against a perilous situation of life and death, Kai couldn't feel even an ounce of happiness.
It was neither because he had killed humans for the first time, nor due to such pitiful condition of his body... No, it was because he was disappointed.
Disappointed in someone.
Disappointed in himself.
Even if it was true that he had surpassed walls that were nowhere near his level, he just couldn't forget about the part where his mindset had been shaken... Broken that easily...
The smile that spread wide across his face mere moments ago, had long since dissipated.
He stood on the blood-stained earth, right next to the corpse of who—even if for a few moments—was his comrade that he eventually killed himself.
Kai's grip over his spear slowly slipped away as his hand fell back to his side—finally allowed to rest.
"Come to think of it," he tilted his head downwards and slightly raised his right hand, looking at his palms with a stern gaze while he continuously clenched it into a fist and opened it up.
"None of this would've been possible if it weren't for him..."
***
Several minutes ago...
When Kai was mindlessly running away from the combined attacks of both Damon and Daniel in that battered state of his body, he had lost all of his hopes.
At that point, his mind and soul were engulfed in an emotion that he had forgotten long ago—fear.
Blood continued to gush out of his severed leg and mutilated arm, causing his skin to turn pale and his body to lose strength; all while it continued to flood into his damaged organs, filling them up to the brim—making it erupt from his mouth and nose.
Each step that he took, felt as though someone was tearing his insides apart ruthlessly.
'I-I DON'T WANNA DIE!'
His mind... his soul desperately yearned to live more, but the effect of 'fear' was so strong that he had nearly lost his reasoning.
He kept on repeating the same phrase over and over again, while his body kept on pushing it further, just to let him live for a little longer.
Even with eyes wide open, he soon felt as though his vision was slowly leaving his side. The colors faded and the edges smeared while the light itself seemed to flicker like a dying flame.
His consciousness was slowly fading away as his balance began to crumble.
"No... No....I don't wann—" His voice wavered in desperation and nervousness, but he couldn't complete his sentences as he suddenly felt as though he was being forcibly pulled somewhere.
Instantly, the space around him had completely ceased to function. The world had lost its colors—now imbued in the grayish gradient, everything had stopped just the way it was... Including him...
Kai tried to move, but he couldn't. No matter how much force he applied, his body refused to move.
"Since when did you begin to fear death?"
Cutting through the giant overlapping walls of his thoughts, a familiar, yet soul-piercing sound rang inside his mind.
The voice seemed calm but angered at the same time. It was authoritative but it wasn't dangerous.
"This..." Kai recognized the voice in an instant.
It was the same mysterious voice that had helped him back then to escape from the claws of the shaman's spell.
However, rather than the voice, his interest seemed to be piqued by his words instead.
His eyes widened, and his pupils dilated within a split second. His words fell onto his soul like a ravaging thunder, clearing his murky, foggy field of view.
It was a revelation that simultaneously rang inside his head—each time getting louder and louder.
Vague memories of his past near-death experiences surfaced in his mind, while a certain feeling seemingly welled up inside him.
He wasn't familiar with it, but the moment it surfaced, he had never felt such peace comfort the awry state of his mind.
'Right... When have I ever turned my back in the face of Death...'
The corners of his lips stretched and curled into a smile as his eyes grew clearer than ever.
"This will be my first, and last help to you."
The voice reverberated in his mind once again before the world around him returned to its original state.
His steps continued, but for some reason, his complexion had improved by a lot. The blood that gushed out of his wounds was reduced significantly while his skin seemed to have been rejuvenated.
A faint, almost non-visible red glow shimmered in the iris of his eyes as he felt a presence behind him, his smile stretching even further as an inexplicable emotion of excitement took over him.
***
Back to the present...
"Anyways... Everything has been settled. Soon the second trial will be completed." He said in a low voice as he looked towards the statue of the goddess in front of him, his voice—a mix of relief and exhaustion.
As he said so, the stiff muscles of his body slowly began to relax. His eyelids grew heavier, threatening to fall any second.
His eyes reverted back to their original state as well, letting the red glow that shimmered within his irises all the way through his battles dissipate.
However, as the last remnant of its glow disappeared and his eyes turned normal, Kai's body broke down in a second.
He, who was standing upright mere moments ago, was brought to his knees and palms in an instant while blood burst out from his throat as he let out a series of guttural, sickening wet coughs.
Pain began to spike up all over his body as his vision started to get blurry.
And as if all of this wasn't enough, a completely foreign sound began to slowly approach him in a rhythmic order—its sound getting louder each time.
Thud
Thud
Amidst his fight with Damon and Daniel, Kai realized that he had completely forgotten about someone else.
'At a time like this..? Seriously?'